


Furry Mist Angels

by Pteriforever



Category: Dragon Riders (Role-Playing Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Dark, Gen, Variant U
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-03-11
Updated: 2015-01-31
Packaged: 2018-01-15 09:14:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 23,021
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1299601
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pteriforever/pseuds/Pteriforever
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Draconia in Epsilon Variant U was not always covered in darkness. This is the story of how it happened and of those who fought back.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Rising Doom

Furry Mist Angels: Rising Doom

Varin Arkxon awoke to the sound of thunder. It was loud, and seemed to be coming from directly overhead, although he couldn't tell that well.

"Holy crap...!", screamed someone from another room.

Varin stood up, adjusting the cute white cat ears he had on, and raced dazily over to the voice. His sisters, Eyria and Aril, were staring with shock out a window.

It was a cold, overcast day outside. He gasped with disbelief; a spectacular wall of dark black fog, blotting out half the sky, was flying towards them.

"What the hell is going on!?", demanded Aril. She was younger than Varin, but much, much louder. Her hair was pure black and meticulously cut and arranged to perfection.

Eyria said nothing. She looked a lot more like Varin did, with short, pale hair, and was a little older than him.

She was studying a fresh-looking sheet of paper, looking very, very serious as she did so.

"Have a look at this. It says they've been assassinated.", she said calmly, turning the paper around and showing it to Varin and Aril.

It was a news article, in stark black-and-white. Giant letters across the top of the page spelled out "DEAD". The rest was too small for him to read from where he was standing.

Varin blinked, still kind of sleepy. "Wait, who has...?"

"It says right here...", Eyria began. "Some kind of... Dragon Rider prince and princess. I don't know who they are, I just think it's weird", she added defensively.

Varin said nothing, while Aril let out a loud squeak. "Noooo!!", she said.

"...What?", Eyria asked impatiently.

"Don't you know!?", Aril responded. "It's connected! That's why this weird stuff is happening! Haven't you read the lore? It's the end!"

"That's ridiculous! It's probably just a volcano or something.", Eyria said, then glanced out the window with a hint of nervousness.

The darkness was rushing towards them at an alarming rate; it had already gotten visibly closer in the short time Varin had been watching.

"We've got to get out of here! Quick, take your stuff and run!", Aril said, beginning to rush around. She threw a bunch of books into a backpack, then grabbed a fluffy white cat with green eyes. "What shall we do about Saira?"

"Where will we run to?", Varin asked urgently, suddenly feeling the weight of the reality of the situation hit him.

"You're right, we can't outrun the black fog...", Aril began, staring at the ground in a brief moment of despair before immediately cheering up again. "We will have to let Saira guide us!"

She gently stroked the cat named Saira, who was also staring at the encroaching blackness, silently and calmly.

Eyria sighed. "I don't understand what's up with you two and that cat..."

"She's special!", Aril said, holding Saira a little more tightly with one arm while reaching into her backpack with the other. From it, she retrieved a pair of cat ears, which matched Varin's in every way except for their colour -- grey instead of white --, and quickly put them on. "You remember when our parents left for Sekaigakure, right? They said Saira would guide us. She's our little truth wielder. We have to trust that she'll lead us to safety!"

"...Fine.", Eyria responded. "I'll pack my things." She turned to Varin. "You should do the same."

Aril set Saira down, and began racing around, shoving a Dragon Riders Xi poster and a box of various candy into her bag.

Varin went off to his room; the morning's events had been a little too bewildering for him. He changed into a fluffy white robe and fluorescent purple shoes, and picked up his weapon of choice; a simple, light, steel-tipped spear.

He emerged after less than a minute. Aril was standing in the center of the room, looking very alert. Eyria had collected a bunch of papers, and had carefully folded them and placed them in her own bag. She had her own weapon, a polished quarterstaff, which was leaning against the nearest wall.

"Now let's go!", Aril said irately, and strode up to the door, throwing it open. A blast of wind immediately came in, and perturbed Eyria's papers.

Saira immediately became alerted, and rushed out the door before Aril could take a single step.

"Quick!", she shrieked, and began running, although she was considerably burdened by her backpack. Varin caught up to her almost instantly, and watched in surprise as Saira travelled in a straight line through the grass, directly towards the wall of darkness, now only a few hundred metres away, and taking over more of the countryside with every moment.

"No!", Aril shouted, and pointed at her. Eyria scrambled behind her, just in time to see Saira disappear into the darkness.

"She has shown us the way.", Varin said, his voice much more calm than he was actually feeling.

"Aaah!", he said, dropping to the ground and shielding his head with his hands as the black fog finally reached them, the wind which carried it growing even more intense.

He heard Aril coughing, somewhere in front of him, before the wind drowned out that sound too.

He lay like that for several minutes, until the wind had become gentle enough to stand in. He got to his feet, and looked around.

The smoke was not very thick at ground level, but still carried a dusty, irritating smell, and it made his eyes water. Above him, it swirled so densely that the sun could not be seen at all. What he could see of the world was cast into shadow. Saira was nowhere to be found.

"Wow, you were right...", Eyria said, coming up behind Aril and standing next to her.

"Maybe we should've stayed inside...", Varin said.

"No!", Aril contradicted immediately. "If the lore's correct, then the world is going to end! We'll need to get out of here fast!"

"How the heck are we going to do that?", Eyria asked, then coughed a little. "The nearest portal to Sekaigakure is almost two days' walk from here."

"Then there's no other choice!", Aril replied. "That's the direction Saira went, so she must be telling us to go there! Such a clever kitty~".

Eyria sighed. "I guess when the world goes crazy, the crazy will lead us...", she muttered, too fast and too quietly for Aril to hear.

Hardly noticing it, they had already begun walking across the grass and descended into a normally pleasant valley.

There was no smoke in the air down there, so it was a little easier to breathe. The grass also grew more wild; twisted and spiky, and a pain to walk though. Varin knew there was a proper path nearby, but despite his familiarity with the area, he couldn't exactly see it.

Looking upwards, it was an impressive sight. Dense, twisting blackness raced overhead. Some parts allowed faint daylight to filter through, enabling the three to see, while in other places it was completely back. Sometimes, it had a faint purple shade to it.

Eyria halted.

"Does anyone mind if... we visit Brye's observatory on the way? It won't take too long...", Eyria said, suddenly sounding a little nervous.

Varin spun around to face her and blinked, a brief flash of anger in his eyes. Aril opened her mouth as if she planned a response, but said nothing for a few seconds before asking "Umm... why~?"

"I'm not going there.", Varin announced darkly. "He hates me."

"That's because you never gave him a chance to prove himself!", Eyria snapped back.

Aril stopped paying attention to the conversation and ran eight or nine steps forward. "What the hell was that!?"

"What??", Varin asked. He squinted at what was visible of the skyline.

"I saw a thing!", Aril clarified.

They all stood in silence for a good ten seconds. None of them saw or heard a thing.

"Oh well. It mustn't have been anything after all. Let's go!"

They trudged through the fields and across roads in silence for the next hour. They had been a little unnerved by Aril's false alarm, half-expecting to see something nasty flickering on the edge of their vision.

Eventually, in the middle of some rather more tame grasslands than the ones they had come from, a pale shadow popped into view and began leaping towards them.

They stopped. Eyria took a step back in surprise; the others just watched.

It was Saira.

She looked very agitated, and kept looking backwards as if she thought there was something behind her.

"Yay, she found us again!". Aril stepped forward and grabbed Saira, affectionately holding her close and patting her head.

Eyria breathed quietly in relief and gently kicked the ground.

Just when she looked like she was calming down, Saira suddenly fought out of Aril's grasp and dashed a few metres into the dense grass before hissing at something none of them could see.

"Huh... Why'd she do that for?", Varin asked.

A peculiar, incredibly high-pitched buzzing noise could be heard from somewhere, rapidly getting louder.

Within a few seconds, strange fizzing grey-and-white energy began to coalesce in a vaguely humanoid shape in front of Saira.

"Eep! What the heck is that thing!?", Aril shrieked, and jumped backwards quickly.

Occasionally, parts of the entity's body would fade a little, before swapping themselves out for human body parts, which would then fade back into the writhing mass of weirdness which it mainly consisted off.

It slowly moved forward, causing Saira to scamper closer to the others. It didn't walk like a human; it just slid across the ground, as if its feet were slithering. It lifted an indistinct and distorted arm towards Varin, who was too alarmed to move.

Eyria shot forward. "Get away from him!", she shouted in sudden rage, instantly taking out her staff and giving the thing's arm a decent whack.

It emitted a small burst of black-and-white sparks from the impact, which quickly dissipated, and withdrew its arm into itself before reforming it and turning on Eyria, rushing up to her with an otherworldly noise which sounded like a mass of madly sparking wires was right behind Eyria's head.

Eyria batted it away, before bringing a crushing blow down on its head.

The thing had the cosnsistecy of very heavy water; bits of it splattered away or sloshed over to other parts of its body when it was struck, but it returned to its normal shape pretty quickly.

It was in full-on attack mode now. Though it was fairly slow on its feet, it could extend arms and tendrils quickly, and stretch them much further than any human could.

Finally comprehending what was going on, Varin readied his spear and leapt towards the being, his spear out in front of him in an aggressive position. It connected with its shoulder, and passed straight though fairly easily; whatever it was had hardly even noticed it.

He quickly pulled it free, a much easier task than it would've been against a more solid monster, and watched as the thing moved to block yet another attack from Eyria, before striking her powerfully across the chest, causing her to lose her balance, the air driven from her.

"Run!", Varin shouted, with Aril looking over his shoulder with an unreadable expression. He darted over to where the fight was happening and dragged Eyria to her feet, pulling her away from the strange thing. Saira placed herself in between them and it, and then sat down and growled a warning.

The entity paid no heed, and shifted onwards towards the group. Saira leapt at it, and slashed it across its stomach with her claws, spraying vile pepperlike sparkles with every blow.

Varin and Aril were half-pushing, half-carrying Eyria away from the scene as quickly as was reasonably practical. They travelled about a hundred metres until they stopped, and fell to the ground in a row.

Varin breathed nervously and looked back over his shoulder, but he could see nothing. If the thing was still there, it was hidden by some combination of the black fog and the poor lighting.

Moments later, Saira padded up behind them, and quickly pressed herself against Varin. She was still lightly glittering from bits of the weird energy the being mainly consisted of.

They stayed there in silence for almost three minutes. Eyria eventually regained her breath, and shakily got to her feet. "Let's get going... I want to make it to the city's edge by midnight.", she declared.

"Can't we rest for a while before then?", Varin asked, standing up as well. His cat ears had become crooked in the panic, so he adjusted them back to their normal state.

Aril giggled. "Those always look so cute on you~!".

"I have to admit that I never believed anything like what happened today was possible...", Eyria began breathily, "but with all this weirdness going on, it's not safe out in the open. Once we get to the city edge, there'll be places to hide and friends to stay with. By then, it'll only be a short walk to Brye's observatory, and from there we can get to the portal easily."

Varin opened his mouth to argue, but Aril cut in first.

"Let's move quickly! That thing was nasty! They never mentioned anything like that in the books!"

Eyria stared at Aril for a few seconds with an "Are you kidding me?" expression on her face, before disregarding her and turning towards the general direction of the city.

They trudged onwards for an unknown period of time. Visibility deteriorated further as they travelled, and Aril took a torch out of her bag to light the way.

They hadn't been paying particularly close attention to the time, but they all knew that many hours had passed. Whenever Aril turned off her torch -- which wasn't very often -- Varin felt that he had never experienced darkness as complete and pure as this. There was simply nothing visible.

He thought he'd become nervous as time went on, but instead he just became alone is his thoughts; his sisters spoke less and less and had blank stares, as did he. Maybe they were just tired. Tired and confused.

The ground shot out from underneath Varin. He let out a squeal as he tumbled into a dark ditch, landing amidst thorny weeds.

"Varin!? Where are you?", Aril yelled from somewhere.

She shone the torch first into the air, then across the landscape, before finally lighting the ditch -- which was more like a long-dry riverbed -- in front of them. "Found you! Are you okay?", she asked, then clumsily climbed down the slope after him.

Varin groaned in response, then pulled himself to his feet and began dusting dirt, dead grass, and bits of thorny plant out of his robe.

"Look out!", Eyria's voice sounded from somewhere behind them.

Varin heard a familiar painfully high-pitched buzzing noise.

He spun around. There was nothing behind him, and he was momentarily confused.

Aril pointed off to the side and shrieked. There was another of the strange beings from earlier, approaching from further along the ditch. Varin instinctively stepped forward in defense of Aril. He got out his spear again; maybe he'd be able to find a way to use it effectively against these things.

It drew closer rapidly; it was on the attack.

Varin kicked it forcefully as it got uncomfortably close, then darted away. However, being both much heavier than him and flexible in alien ways, it absorbed the blow.

Knowing that his spear would do nothing to the entity if it was used to pierce, he began clumsily bashing it with it instead, striking it a few times, although not particularly powerfully.

From out behind him dashed Aril, who stumbled up the opposite slope and beckoned to Varin to follow. His body still aching from his recent fall, he struggled up and out of the ditch.

The thing followed; it did so in the same manner as it walked; by weirdly sliding up.

"I'm coming!". Eyria leaped down in pursuit, her staff raised to strike. She joined Varin and Aril within seconds, and struck the being once again across its body. It swung its far-reaching arms, barely missing Eyria.

Varin suddenly broke into a short sprint for just a few metres, before crashing into the thing with full force. This provided just enough power to destabilise it, and it collapsed backwards, colliding with the ground and momentarily becoming a blobby mess before its form returned.

"It's just like last time! We can't hurt these things!", Aril shouted.

"I think we can.", Eyria stated, a little smirk on her face. Before the thing could stand, she launched herself down and landed directly on top of it, striking its top half with her staff over and over again.

"No! It won't do anything!", Aril objected, her torch glaring at Eyria.

Varin looked down at the scene.

Eyria glanced back at him, but said nothing.

The thing was beginning to stand up despite Eyria's best efforts. It had lost most of its form though; it was no longer anything close to human in shape.

"I see now!", Aril announced. "You can do it!".

With a final, exceptionally strong stroke to its middle section, it split messily into two large amorphous pieces.

It remained like this for a few moments, before quickly losing all of its energy, unable to reconnect itself.

"Wow... these things are killed by bisection.", Eyria said, her voice sounding much more calm than the rest of her was.

Indeed, the thing was already falling apart and fading away. Eyria stood up and climbed the slope again, a little slower this time.

"Now we know how to hurt them!", Aril said, eyes glittering, seemingly regaining all her lost energy. "I wish one of you had something with an edge to it, though... You guys were great!"

"Yeah, that would be good.", Varin agreed, then sighed a little with mild relief. "And thanks..."

"I agree, we need to find some kind of bladed weapon quickly... I hope I'll never need to fight one of those again, though.", Eyria added in.

"What are those things anyway?", Varin asked after a few seconds, looking at the profoundly black sky. "Do they have a name?"

"Well, I have no idea...", Aril began. "But they remind me of Missingno, so I think they should be called The Glitched!"

"Hmm... well, it's certainly fitting.", Varin evaluated.

"Does it matter what they're called?", Eyria responded apathetically.

"I guess not.", Aril said. "I'm still going to call them that though."

"Me too.", Varin chimed in.

"Fine, fine...", Eyria conceded. "Anyway, we're almost there. Just a little longer...then we can rest."

She strode off towards their destination, weary from the long day yet somehow filled with resolve that she didn't possess even a few hours ago. Varin and Aril fell into step beside her.

The city lay in a valley; even so, its lights began to illuminate up the black clouds, giving them some bearing. Eventually it grew so close that Varin began to think it lay over every hill.

Finally, at the top of a gentle rise, they could finally see it. In front of them, a twisted inormal path would down, leading towards the outer edge of the city. It was nice to see lights again. The air was clearer down there, though, so it could be seen fairly well, too.

"No! This isn't right!", Aril said in sudden anguish. "Is this some kind of joke?"

Eyria and Varin glanced at her incredulously. "Okay, what's wrong?", Eyria ventured to ask.

Aril lowered her voice. "You know how you said you didn't want to fight any more of The Glitched ever again?"

"Yes, I do, and I still don't want to."

"Well, look again."

Dotting the roads in front of them were hundreds of human-sized figures. Even from this distance, it could be seen that they were all white and grey.

Varin's heart sank.


	2. Chapter 2

Eyria sighed with extreme annoyance. “Well, this is just great, isn't it?”.

“How will we ever make it there now!?”, Aril yelled.

“We could make a run for it?”, Varin suggested hopelessly. “But then that would mean-”.

He suddenly stopped. Something down on the nearby fringe of the city caught his attention.

There was a person standing on a roof. It was hard to tell, but from his perspective it looked like whoever they were was wearing a pink hat, and seemed to be looking back at them.

“What?”, Aril asked, and looked in the same direction as Varin.

The figure on the roof suddenly took a running jump off and landed in a grassy garden, hardly pausing for a moment before dashing down the infested street. The Glitched that were disturbingly occupying it paid zero attention to the person, whoever it was. Within seconds she had turned a corner and vanished.

“Wow, I wonder who that was...”, she then added more quietly.

“Clearly someone who knows what they're doing here.”, Eyria replied. “Much unlike us. And... I don't think I could run across the entire city nonstop.”

“If we could hide somewhere and rest... we wouldn't need to go the entire distance. If only we could find better weapons, we'd have a great chance of getting there and escaping this mess.”, Varin conjectured.

“Hey... I know!”, Aril cut in, taking several confident steps forward. “Talam's house isn't too far from here. We can ask him for help.”

“You know he creeps me out.”, Eyria stated, then blinked. “But I don't have any better ideas. Fine.”

“At least he'd be able to fight off those nasty things!”, Aril responded. “It'll be fine. Quickly, let's go!!”.  
With that, she broke into a run, dashing off into the bright lights of the city below. Her footsteps broke the silence.

Despite their exhaustion, Varin and Eyria forced themselves to run as well, catching up to Aril after a few moments.

In what felt like no time at all, they had reached the streets. City lights glared down at them, and some of The Glitched had halted, now paying attention to the newcomers.

“Okay.”, Aril said with serious certainty. “Let's do this.”

She ran forward once again with renewed resolve, leading the charge. The Glitched began to take notice, and began slithering towards her.

Varin rushed ahead of her, veering dangerously close to several Glitched in an attempt to distract them. More were leaking out of the buildings and from dark pits of gardens, and joined the already considerable force on the street in pursuit of him.

They formed into a closer group, and dashed past the next couple of houses. A force of maybe seven or eight Glitched blocked their path, and began converging on them.

Eyria examined her surroundings in a panic. There was no going back, and they were pretty much surrounded.

The Glitched were descending on them in a semicircle, with a high wooden fence blocking the other side.

“Damnit.”, Eyria said calmly. She struck out with her staff, momentarily stunning one of the Glitched with a direct blow, creating a small gap, which se then dived through. “Hurry!”, she added, and the other two followed in panic.

The gang of Glitched continued to give chase, but now that they were out in the open they could outrun them with relative ease. They seemed to be very thick along this street, and getting more and more common the further they went.

“We can't keep going like this! There has to be another path!”, Varin yelled.

“How about this way!? I think I see something!”. Aril leapt a short wire fence, and ran through a dusty backyard.

Varin and Eyria paused, and looked at each other, then after Aril. Indeed, the back fence appeared to have been trampled by something.

They wasted no time in following, and raced through dirt and weeds to the break in the fence.

Their energy turned to dismay for a moment when they saw that beyond the gap, a lone Glitched was moving at them.

Varin stepped forward and attempted to block it using his spear, shaking as it drew nearer. It swung at Varin, his defence worthless, and the attack so strong that it snapped the spear in two.

“Grr!!”, Varin shouted.

“Quick, do this!”. Eyria grabbed Aril and they both ducked to the side, now standing in a path of mud.

The Glitched lost interest in Varin and began chasing after them instead.

The tension was unbearable as, at the last moment, Aril and Eyria did a little circle around it and through the gap.

Varin lunged past it with a blast of speed, and into the unknown with the others.

They found themselves in an empty park. They could see no Glitched here; only the occasional dismal-looking tree.

They proceeded warily. Aril had her hands raised threateningly, and Eyria was holding onto her staff with a very tight grip the entire way.

After another short run, during which Varin tripped over a treestump, they were finally at another street.  
They halted and glanced around.

“Okay, does anyone know this place?”, Eyria asked after a few moments of deathly silence.

“I... I think so!”, Aril announced, and turned right. “Just a while this way, and we'll hopefully be there...”

With that, she forced herself to run further, on the lookout for anything suspicious.

There were only a few Glitched here. Varin avoided them with wide, arcing paths, and passed many buildings. It was only after maybe ten minutes that he finally reached Talam's house and collapsed on the doorstep.

Unlike the majority of the houses, all the lights were on at Talam's house. It was a pretty tawdry building to look at; it would've been fairly indistinguishable from any other small house in Draconia, but it was painted in several fluorescent colours and had tinsel-like decorations draped over it.

Varin soon gained the strength to stand, and did so.

“You really need to see this!”, Eyria called out. Varin spun around.

She was holding up a very short, hastily-written note, in shaky handwriting, but still clearly Talam's.

It simply read:

“GONE.”

“Oh no!”, Aril said in despair, looking over Eyria's shoulder at the note.

Varin's heart sank.

He was just about to say something when the door behind him suddenly opened. He spun around again.

Standing in the doorway was a very cheerful-looking girl, holding a stunningly shiny keyblade. “Who are you people?”, she called out, her voice tinged with curiosity rather than actual suspicion.

"Wait... you're not... Talam!", Varin said breathily. "Who and why are you, then?", he said uncertainly, taking a step forward.

"Oh, forgot about that!", the girl said. "But yeah, I'm not your friend 'Talam', I think he must've left a while ago if he was here at all... My name's Erin Molony by the way!", she added, sounding way more upbeat than everything else around her.

Eyria strode up to the door, to beside Varin, and sighed. "Well, okay then. I'm Eyria Arkxon, and this is Aril and Varin. Do you think we can come in?"

"Yeah, sure, why not?", Erin responded. "I'm curious though... shouldn't you people be hiding underground, or getting off Draconia as fast as possible or something?"

"That's what we're doing!", Aril clarified. "Shouldn't you be getting out of here too then?", she then went on to ask.

"I'm not from around here.", Erin stated. "I'm representing Team Dragon Rise, I just got here this afternoon. They sent Kushagra and I to deal with this incident, so here I am!".

All four of them stepped into the house. Erin shut the door behind them, then breathed in relief. "It's weird out there, isn't it?"

"Indeed. Crazy, even.", Eyria agreed with a little smirk.

The house was much less angrily decorated on the inside than the outside. The walls were a stormy stone-blue, and the floor was made of plain wooden planks. This was some kind of general-purpose entrance-and-hangout room, cluttered with unremarkable plastic furniture.

"By the way, who's Kushagra?", Varin cut in.

"Hi there.", a dark-haired boy spoke up. He looked a little younger than Aril, and was lazily slumped over a sofa. He stood up, and moved forward to stand beside Erin, looking sleepy.

Erin shuffled her feet. "So... you said you were leaving Draconia? By the portal at the city center I assume?", she asked.

"That's the idea.", said Varin. "Why is it important?"

"It's just that... the source of all this crazy dark fog seems to be around there somewhere. We actually came from there earlier today, but it looks like the source has moved, we actually thought it was around here at first... We're looking for the source so we can destroy the crap out of it, so maybe we could let you come with us?", Erin suggested. "Safety in numbers, after all!".

"Hmm.", Eyria said. "There is no harm in it."

"We WILL have time to rest before leaving, though, right?", Aril asked nervously.

"We better!", Kushagra responded. "Not a good idea to go out there at this hour."

"Oh, definitely.", Erin said. "We'll need some time to prepare, feel free to have a rest a while."

"Well... Okay then, I guess it's a good idea.", Varin said.

Eyria nodded.

Varin began to turn away, but was interrupted. "One more thing?", asked Erin to both him and Aril.

"Yes?"

"You don't have weapons, do you? If you want to come with us, you should probably borrow these!"

She reached into a bag and grabbed a pair of shiny white daggers. They looked fairly new; their blades were made of gleaming aluminium and their handles were decorated with bits of blue glass.

"I liked the look of these, so I grabbed them from the Team Dragon Rise stash on my way out. They're supposed to be used a set, but it's something, right~? Just take care of them okay.", she explained, handing one to Aril and the other to Varin.  
It wasn't what Varin was used to, but if it was going to be effective on The Glitched, then he'd happily use it. It would just take some practice.

"I'm curious... why did Team Dragon Rise send you two alone?", Eyria asked, drawing closer to Erin.

"Well... it certainly seems pretty terrifying over here, but it won't be that hard to deal with... It seems to be some kind of magic vortex gone out of control, these things can be dangerous but aren't that hard to resolve~ The Dragon Riders would've done it themselves I'm sure, had they not been off somewhere."

"Umm... about that.", Varin said. "You do know, right?"

"Know what?", Erin asked, looking a little irritated.

"The Dragon Riders are all dead. They were assassinated this morning.", Varin clarified.

"Wait, what the hell?", came the flustered reply. "How does that work? Shouldn't everything be disintegrating around us? That's impossible!"

"Look around. Everything is.", Eyria said darkly, before reaching into her own bag and producing the newspaper page.

"...well then...", Erin breathed hysterically. "Change of plan. We get the hell off Draconia the moment we're well rested, round up all our allies, and get back here with lots of big shiny guns."

"Big shiny guns sound nice, but can't you just call them and ask for help?", Eyria suggested.

"They're on Surfacia, you idiot! It'd take 800 bajillon years for the signal to reach them!", Erin lashed out, then collapsed into a chair. "This is too much..."

Varin sat down and leaned against a wall. He sighed and stared into space.

He didn't know how long it took – there were no clocks in here – but eventually his vision spun into darkness, and he slept uncomfortably.

His sleep was restful but understandably troubled. His entire world had been turned upside down, literally overnight, and he had no idea if it would ever return to normal, or even if he'd survive the next 24 hours.

Eventually he jolted awake.

The room was nobody else in it as he rubbed his eyes, then glanced around.

"Ugh...", he said, shakily standing up and leaning against the wall. All was quiet.

He looked out a window. It was just as dark and gloomy outside as before, and it was raining a little, but it was as close to morning as it was ever going to get.

He stared for a bit, not really focusing on anything, before he started picking up voices from another room. After a few moments, he got up and walked over to the nearest door, before pushing it open.

This was a small room with beige walls. Most of it was was taken up by a large rectangular table, which Aril, Eyria, Erin, and Kushagra were all sitting around.

"It's not that complicated!", Eyria insisted, throwing her fist at the table. "We can just stick together, and make our way in a single group to the observatory, then to the portal!"

"Our mission is way too urgent for that!", Erin shot back. "Oh, hi there Varin."

All four of them paused their debate and stared expectantly at Varin.

He blinked.  
"Well, what do you think?", Aril asked loudly.

His face twisted in confusion, when he saw something move out of the corner of his eye. "Huh..?", he said, and turned around to face the window. Standing just outside of it, in the dimness of the street, was a pale girl, wearing a large pink hat and with an elegant ebony wand in her clenched hand.

"Have you... gone insane?", Eyria asked impatiently, before they all spun around to see what Varin was looking at.

The girl instantly gained a panicky expression, and leaped off to the side, out of view of everybody inside.

Varin took a seat at the table and sighed.

"I remember her... Why is she stalking us?", Aril asked nobody in particular.

"You too? She's also been spying on us!", Erin added with frustration.

"If Eyria wants to go to the observatory...", Varin began breathily, "Then I don't think we can do much to stop her. Believe me, I know."

"Fine.", Erin said, suddenly much quieter, and glaring at Eyria for a couple more seconds before calming down.

"Stopped arguing now? Good, let's go!", Kushagra declared, beginning to sound impatient as well.

Aril was the first to get up. "Great idea!", she said in an exaggerated manner, and strolled decisively out the room.

Erin stared wordlessly at her, then stood up and sighed loudly. "You're right... let's hurry up and get Team Dragon Rise here."

Within moments, they were all clustered around the front door, looking into the gloom before them.

Erin was the first to step forward. "Okay, everyone. Stay behind me unless I say so.", she commanded quietly, readying her weapon and moving forward slowly and tensely.

Her eyes gradually adjusted to the dark, and within moments she noticeably relaxed, seeing that nobody was around.

Varin formed the back of a line, and this made him a little uneasy. There could be anything lurking around corners behind him. He ignored the bits of cold rain hitting him.

They began to proceed slowly down the street. It was still strange seeing the world so dim and dark, but now that he had gotten used to it a little it seemed eerily beautiful in a way.

"Wait a second!!", Aril cried out suddenly, shattering everyone's train of thought. "Where'd Saira go?"

Eyria and Varin glanced around themselves. There was no trace of the fluffy white cat anywhere.

"Wait, who's Saira?", Kushagra asked, spinning around to look at Aril.

"Saira...", Aril began, trying her best not to sound hysterical, "...is my cat. She gives us hope and guides the way, we can't go on without her!!"

Kushagra blinked, then turned around again.

"I'm sure she's somewhere...", Eyria said, "...and there's no use worrying. Nothing bad's ever happened to her before."

"But these are... strange times!", Aril objected.

"Regardless, I think we should keep going. Who knows what'll find us if we split up or waste time or do anything reckless. How about let's not panic until we're at the portal? Then we can run off searching if necessary."

"Fine...", Aril responded. "I can't believe we lost track of her."

"Aah!", Erin yelled as a Glitched took hold of her!

The conversation had left everyone a little distracted, and it took a moment to launch into action.

Eyria pulled out her staff. It had been fitted with blades on both ends, to make it a little more effective.

Without delay, Erin took her keyblade and swung it behind herself. It moved almost effortlessly through the weird material the Glitched consisted of, and within moments it was nothing more than bits of sparkly stuff on the ground.

"Wow...", Aril said, taking a step forward.

"Are you okay?", Kushagra asked quietly.

"Yep, I'm good... that was close, though. Let's not let that happen again.", Erin said, dusting herself off.

"That would be nice if it were possible, but... look out!", Eyria warned, and pointed off in the direction the Glitched had come from.

At least eight or nine more had slithered out, from somewhere, and were now making their way towards the group in a sinister formation.

"Everyone, attack!", Erin ordered in alarm.

Kushagra wasted no time and immediately dived forward, and gave a slash with his katana to the two nearest Glitched. The strike connected, but failed to pierce the full depth of the bizarre monsters. He withdrew his blade and took a step back.

Varin engaged one as well. It swung at him and glanced his shoulder, but he managed to maintain his balance and managed to get a hit in with his dagger. After a few attempts, one hit broke all the way through, and it fell apart in front of his eyes.

The rest of the Glitched were clustered around Erin and Eyria, who were standing back-to-back, bashing furiously with their respective weapons to hold them off. Aril cut in with a precise attack, but was hit in the stomach as a counterattack and knocked back from its force.

Kushagra eventually dealt with the two he was fighting. There were now only three left, all focusing on Erin.

Looking like she was in some kind of battle frenzy, she only intensified further. With a cutesy acrobatic spin, she cleaved through all three of them in a single action, before dropping her weapon and panting a little. "Well that wasn't too hard!", she said cheerfully.

"Very exciting indeed.", Eyria agreed.

Aril got to her feet. She had had the air knocked out of her, but was otherwise fine.

Everyone was silent for a short while, but soon they collected together again, and, without a word, continued on their way.

They turned a corner. They were on a large, wide road now; it seemed to lead all the way to the city center. It would've been very busy if not for the recent disaster.

They stuck to the shadows of the sidewalk this time. There were quite a few Glitched loitering around the road, and they hoped to avoid attracting too much attention. They were vicious and inclined to pursue, but didn't seem that observant or intelligent, and seemed to be completely deaf, which made them a little easier to avoid.

However, they seemed to be getting denser and denser. Whereas previously they could see maybe ten in total, there were now dozens littering the road.

There were a couple of encounters, but nothing as notable as the small battle they had won earlier.

"So where's this lame observatory of yours?", Erin asked snidely after about an hour of walking.

Eyria sighed. She could understand that Erin wanted to get help as soon as possible, but this was something she just couldn't compromise on. "About a kilometre southeast of the city center. It's very big and tall, if it wasn't so dark you could easily see it from here."

"So it shouldn't make more than an hour's delay to go there, do whatever you want to do, and come back?", Erin asked her seriously.

"Most likely.", Eyria responded quickly.

They had hardly gone more than a few steps before Kushagra heard footsteps.

Forgetting all caution, he raced forward a few metres and pointed in panic down an alleyway. "It's her!", he exclaimed.

"Who?", Erin said, dashing ahead to stand beside Kushagra, just in time for whatever he was pointing at to vanish.

"The creepy girl with the hat.", he explained in a somewhat more hushed voice.

Erin glared down the alley. "Damnit. Her again? Well, I'm going to go find out just what her problem is.", she declared.

"Kush, look after the others! I'll meet you at the portal!", she shouted, already beginning to race after the mysterious girl.

She hadn't gotten too far. As Erin reached the end of the alley, leaving the other four behind, and turned, she saw a person – a real person, definitely not a Glitched – in the glow of the streetlights a hundred metres or so away. She put on even more speed. She seemed to be gaining on the stranger, but she couldn't tell too clearly.

The ground was a blur beneath her. She went into another, more cluttered alley in pursuit, dodging boxes and piles of trash as she went. The girl looked behind herself and panicked, and tried to accelerate as well.

Erin almost tripped over a brick, and yelled out in pain, but regained her footing through force of will, determined to catch the stranger, losing only maybe a second.

She, on the other hand, didn't seem at all bothered by her surroundings. It was like she new the path well. Erin thought it seemed like she was trying to reach a specific place.

They reached open road once more. This one was relatively full of Glitched, which noticed her immediately. Scared though she was, she weaved between them, not stopping at all costs.

The stranger was slowing now – she was pretty fast, but evidently didn't have the fitness to sustain it the way Erin could.

However, while the Glitched reached and chased after Erin, getting in the way of her and being a bother. On the other hand, they ignored the other girl, as if they considered her a friend.

"Nya! Got you!". As the Glitched finally thinned, leaving her unimpeded, Erin gave a final burst of speed and tackled the stranger to the ground.

She gave an angry squeak at glared at Erin.

"Okay, I have a few questions.", Erin began, somewhat out of breath though she was. "Who are you, and why were you watching us?"

The stranger was even more tired than she was, and took a few moments before saying anything. "Fine, fine! I'll tell you, just let me go and follow me, okay!?"

Erin loosened her grip on the stranger, but didn't let go completely. She said nothing.

"I can't run any further. I'm not going to try.", she added. Erin finally released her.

"Okay, there you go. But if this is a trap, I'm going to completely obliterate you!", Erin replied between her teeth.

"Thanks. There won't be any need for that though.". She giggled a little.

They were a short distance from a large office building. The strange girl stood up and dusted herself off, before striding over to its door.

Erin followed precisely and watched her every move, not willing to let her guard down for a second.

The stranger stepped into the building and let out a deep breath, seeming somewhat relieved to be there. Erin entered behind her. "So, why do we need to be here?", she asked, her anger dissipating.

"Safer behind closed doors. Can't be seen or heard by the outside world, and we're not going to be interrupted by nasty things. I've told the doors to only open for me, so I'm 99% sure we're totally alone."

"You seemed pretty safe outside... the Glitched hardly noticed you!"

"They're virtually harmless. Not what I need to hide from. There's much, much worse."

Erin sighed. Of course there were going to be even nastier monsters waiting for her.

"Anyway...", the stranger began again, "...I could give you a fake name but that would be pointless since technically I have nothing to gain from deceiving you. My real name is Clarabella Ralink, and I'm the sole survivor of Ralink Cybertech. I guess that makes me the owner, too."

"Well, okay. I'm Erin Molony, but you probably know that already from all your spying.", Erin said in response. She took a careful look at Clarabella; she was tall and was wearing a white business suit. Her hair was hidden by the large pink broad-brimmed hat she wore. Her clothes had an unnecessary amount of glitter in them.

"Yep, found that out.", Clarabella replied. "You and your friend interest me. You're here by choice, not by necessity, aren't you? Have my ideas, but I'd like to know why."

It occurred to Erin that she was the one who was supposed to be asking questions. "We're here to end the darkness and fix everything!", she said anyway with great determination.

Clarabella's voice suddenly became grave and serious. "Well then. I guess you have no idea how far over your head you've just gone."

The change in tone surprised Erin. "Well, I know the Dragon Riders are dead and that the situation is worse than I used to think it was, but I'm a trained general of Team Dragon Rise. I know what I'm doing."

"Do you? Then you'd know this is quite possibly the greatest disaster Draconia has ever seen. Wouldn't recommend prancing about trying to play hero.", Clarabella responded.

"I'm not!", Erin said grumpily.

Clarabella led Erin up several flights of stairs as the conversation continued. On the fourth or fifth floor, she strode through a brightly-lit corridor into a comfortable sort of meeting room.

"Lots of things I don't know...", she began again, sitting down. "...but I do know that something huge is causing reality to crumble away."

Erin blinked.

"This should be no surprise to you! You've read the full version of the Dragon Riders prophecy, right? The complete Past Draconian one?", Clarabella asked urgently.

"Yes, but..."

Clarabella pulled out a huge black leather book and slammed it down on a desk, before opening it somewhere in the middle and frantically searching for a specific page.

"It says right here! 'Snaem yna yb ylap otni semoc Selcinam Sredir' Nogard Layor eht fo Esruc eht fi eb ot esaec lliw lla taht dehsilbatse neeb sah ti. Sdrolw lla fo efil eht fo noitcurtsed eht htiw deksat eb ot si Noivilbo fo Ratava eht sa nwonk si hcihw taht. Erehwyna morf lavirra sti wolla erofereht dna Senalp neewteb sreirrab eht egamad llahs Esruc eht.'. Basically, if the Dragon Riders die, then something called the Avatar of Oblivion shows up and eventually kills everyone before ending the universe. Not nice."

"Is that really what it says??", Erin asked, taken aback. "That's what you're hiding from?"

"Yep, and yes.", Clarabella said, letting the old book fall shut. "Now, Erin, you're free to go. Your life, how you waste it is up to you. Could stay here too, I mean, gets pretty lonely being me sometimes."

"Well, I need to meet back up with my friend, so I'm not staying!", Erin responded, not liking her sinister tone at all. "He's escorting some survivors off the planet."

"Yes, I know that much... If you're interested there's something I could show you, though."

Erin glared at her. "Not interested. I think I'll just hurry up and leave."

"You sure about that?", Clarabella asked.

"You're a very weird person, you know that?"

...

Kushagra and the others had made some slow progress across the city. The rain had ceased for a bit, which was convenient.

Eyria thought she could see the observatory silhouetted against the black sky for a moment.

"Okay, stop.", Kushagra called out with a hint of annoyance after another hour or so.

They were now only a short distance from the portal – Eyria recognised the transportation building, standing solid and square, well within sight.

The city lay in a valley, but the floor of the valley was uneven in places. This part of the road was a little lower than the rest, limiting the radius anything smaller than building-sized could be seen from.

As the road sloped uphill once more and the four people began to make their gentle ascent, Eyria felt none of the exhaustion from earlier. She felt ready for anything, and maybe a little bit hopeful that this all could be resolved.

That changed the moment Kushagra stood at a high point in the road and got a closer look at the transportation building.

Swarming all over it were more Glitched than any of them had seen in a single place before. There must've been many hundreds.

Varin stood in shock alongside Kushagra, who looked calm as can be. Aril let out a cry of anguish. Eyria just stared bitterly.

"Now what?", she asked between her teeth.

Kushagra didn't say anything for a few seconds, deep in thought.

"I think we know that these things aren't that dangerous to somebody well-armed... I'll cause a scene to distract as many of them as possible. Then, I can dash back around and go in through the front door. While I'm doing that, you can have your trip to the observatory. It looks relatively quiet over that way, you shouldn't need to be escorted there. Not what we agreed earlier, but it'll work.", he explained coolly. "And don't worry about me being on my own. Training, wits, and skill are worth more than all the strength in all the numbers in this city right now."

Aril's eyes gleamed in frustration. "Okay. But how the hell are we going to get inside the building when we come back? They'll have gathered back together! We don't have training like you."

"You can wait outside.", Kushagra ordered.

"Wait for what?", Varin asked, a little more quietly. "Erin to return?"

"No... although when she returns she'll be able to break in easily. You don't get to be a general of Team Dragon Rise without being able to handle a situation, after all. I have something else in mind?"

"What are you talking about?", Varin demanded, but not too aggressively.

"I'm not going to wait for Erin. I'll go through the portal myself and fetch help, and then we'll have enough firepower to burn through all these fiends. When I'm on Surfacia, I'll be able to call Team Dragon Rise directly and Dr. Time will be able to teleport me again to wherever they are. It'll only take a few hours at the most."

"That all sounds ridiculously foolhardy, you know that right?", Eyria said.

"Well, every minute counts. Erin was in a rush to get here before she got distracted. Wouldn't it be good if we could get Team Dragon Rise here sooner rather than later?", Kushagra shot back, unfazed.

Eyria sighed. "Okay, fine. Still sounds risky, but if I can't talk you ou-"

"You can't.", Kushagra interrupted in a deadpan. "This is a fantastic idea, you'll see when everything comes together. Now... better go, you won't want to be around when I do this next."

Eyria shrugged and gave a serious glare to Kushagra, who responded with a knowing smirk.

She, along with Aril and Varin, turned off towards the observatory, looming high and black ahead of them.

"This is going to be fun...~", Kushagra said to himself when the others were well out of earshot.

He charged up a pentabeam and pointed it in front of the base of the building, into the crowds of Glitched. The silver ray flew from his hands effortlessly, and it struck several Glitched, who were tossed aside.

With his other hand, he readied his katana and strode towards the countless enemy, rapidly drawing nearer. The building was painfully close – less than fifty metres to its nearest edge – but several hundred strange and zombie-like monsters stood in the way.

He threw a second pentabeam, at the nearest one, without aiming, and broke into a run.

Kushagra drew closer to the densely packed mindless army, so that he was running parallel to it, so close that a precise blow might knock him off his feet if he weren't moving too quickly for their reactions to keep up.

He glanced over his shoulder. He was doing a pretty good job at attracting their attention.

He ducked into range for a moment and gave the strongest swing of his weapon he could manage. At least two Glitched were hewn into pieces.

Leaping back to a safer distance, he was travelling in a large, fast arc around the building, making sure to throw in an attack every so often to ensure they kept chasing him. He was glad he didn't tire easily.

Sensing that there were no more Glitched unaware of his presence, he swerved away from the transportation building, into a side street.

Sure enough, the vast majority of the Glitched pulled away from the building with him, and moved up the side street like some sort of grim parade.

At the next corner, he turned to the left, then to the left again. He was now on the original, wide road, heading directly at the now-mostly-Glitched-free building with the portal to salvation inside.

He had begun to be out of breath by the time he stood at the wide sliding doors to the Transportation building, the crowd of doom closer on his heels than he expected.

Kushagra stepped forward and threw the doors aside.

He then muttered a string of swear words.

The inside of the building was just as crawling with Glitched as the outside was! The entry room was densely packed with the same malevolent creatures his beautiful idea was supposed to avoid.

"Well... crud.", he muttered hysterically, his confident and together demeanour disintegrating along with his plan.

But it was too late to go back. The Glitched had begun to gather around him from the back. He edged forward nervously to remain within his rapidly shrinking disaster-free area.

However, this was no time for deliberation.

He leaped into battle, forcing himself to the entryway. A series of deft slashes cut down the foremost row of Glitched, swiftly followed by the second. He casually tossed two gale palms into the writhing mess of monsters, causing several to lose their balance. Kushagra took advantage of this, and forced himself through to the back of the entry room, sustaining several glancing hits in the process.

He cast another door open. On the other side awaited more of those awful Glitched, though there were less dense than the first room.

"You can't stop me! None of you can!", he yowled with rage, his blade taking apart each horrible creature in turn as if it had a mind of its own, wading through the resultant hellish glitter.

He silently ordered himself to think. Where was the portal in this whole big transportation building of similar portals to places he didn't want to be?

Thinking back to when he arrived in Draconia only yesterday, he realised... the portal would be on the second floor.

He was almost pinned to a wall by the rising tide of Glitched behind him, but he broke free with a pentabeam, blasting several of them into hideous amorphous shapes.

Forcing another door open, he found himself in the ground floor's central area. He glanced from left to right, surveying the room in under a second. There they were, in the far corner. Stairs. Up.  
Kushagra was almost immediately struck in the back of the head by a Glitched, dizzying him and easily tossing him onto the ground.

His head hurt now. In a frenzy, he threw a gale palm at the nearest one, pushing it away and delaying the horde by precious milliseconds at the cost of some of his magic energy, which was beginning to get depleted.

He stood up shakily, but forced his mind to remain clear. He dashed over to the stairs with his greatest speed yet, and without making a conscious effort, slashed down a trio of Glitched who were making their way down to stop him, their bodies disintegrating into nothing but weird glitter.

They were followed by eight more. Kushagra struck them down one after the other, his face looking completely twisted with gleeful fury. "Do you have any idea how absurd it is!!?? You truly believe your superior numbers could defeat me!?!? Well I'll tell you something! All the strength in all the numbers in all of FREAKIN' DARII does not. Have. A. Hope! OF! TOUCHING!! KUSHAGRA!!! JAIN!!!!". The last obstacle to the top of the stairs fell before him.

Predictably, the second floor was as full of the monsters as the ground floor was.

He forced himself to think for a fraction of a split second. Which way now? He saw a corridor leading to the individual portal rooms, but...

Of course. It had been the eighth door on the left.

He felt another blow catch his chest, and he staggered backwards, the air partially knocked out of him.

Exhausted, beaten, and nearly at the end of the line, Kushagra's sheer force of will was what made him break through the next wall of Glitched in a flurry of slashes, to the beginning of the corridor. He counted the doors.

One, two, three, four. His attacks were getting sloppier and less precise, but it didn't matter. The tide of enemy was being pushed back. One. By. One.

He reached the eighth door, and leaned over to shove it open.

Locked.

Who the heck would lock a door during the apocalypse? It hadn't been locked when he had came in. Maybe these doors could be opened on the inside, so arrivals from the portals could leave easily?

It didn't matter. He launched a careless kick at the door, but only felt pain in return.

"Aaah!!!", he yelled in alarm. His ankle was probably twisted from that bit of thoughtlessness.

He blasted a pentabeam at the door, feeling his supply of magical energy drain dry, then another, and the eighth door fractured into nothing but pathetic wooden shards.

There it was. The portal, hovering all colourful and shiny in a vertical disc above a fancy machine built into the floor. Now, it was only a few more steps to safety.

He moved forward with a noticeable limp. On the floor below the portal, its destination was written in large block letters.

Irova.

Panic wracked Kushagra's mind. How could this be the wrong portal?? Maybe he misremembered. Perhaps it was the eighth door on the right instead?

He forced himself back out the now-empty doorway, and raised his katana to the legion of Glitched, which hadn't subsided in the slightest. If anything, it had grown more ferocious.

His body screaming at him to stop moving, he reached over to the opposite door.

Locked too.

He gave a shriek as he was knocked off his feet by a particularly vicious attack to his lower legs.

"You'll never defeat me!!!!", he screeched in vain, trying to drag himself to stand again.

A second hit swiftly came and he collapsed on the floor. Then another.

Followed by a terrifying full-on hit to the head.

And then nothing.

...

Eyria stood, panting, at the heavy metal door to Brye's Observatory.

Brye was a very good friend of hers. They used to be neighbours, but he eventually had trouble with his family and ran off to live with his grandfather in this funny tower. When he arrived, his grandfather was nowhere to be found and was never seen again, but Brye managed to make a new life for himself anyway.

He had most likely run to somewhere, but seeing him wasn't the reason why Eyria had wanted to come here so badly.

The observatory used to be a defense tower in the distant past. Its height allowed a gun on top of it to point a laser at almost any point in the city. However, it was converted as it was no longer needed.

Eyria stepped forward and tested the door. It was very creaky and stiff, but it wasn't locked, much to their relief.

"Good to be here again... Just wish it was in a better time.", Eyria sighed.

"I dunno, every time we come here seems to be a bad time for most of us.", Aril snarked.

The ground floor had been made into a rudimentary living space by Brye. It looked like a complete mess.

This reassured Eyria somewhat. It meant Brye had left in a hurry.

She stared at a square brick wall for a moment, as if gathering her memories, before beginning to make her way up a very, very long staircase.

Nobody said anything. Varin tried to mentally count the steps, but he stopped bothering at around eighty.

After a good five or ten minutes of climbing, they reached the highest point of the observatory. First there was a room contianing Brye's instruments – they looked like they had been used recently, and while their condition was fine they looked in peculiar disarray. One had been fully set up as if Brye was actively using it the very moment before he evacuated.

"I wonder what happened here...", Eyria said to nobody in particular.

Above was the roof, which there were stairs to.

Aril looked up though the stairway, and gasped. "I can't believe we didn't notice this right away!", she said in an anxious tone, before drifting off into silence again.

The others looked up as well, before dragging themselves onto the roof and sitting down. "The sky is black as ever.", Varin observed grumpily.

Varin was usually terrified of heights, but didn't mind being up here so much. There was a nice wind and he couldn't see far enough in any direction to know how far the ground was. It was like he was standing on a magic space platform, free above the sky. Varin was still not in the best mood, but being on the roof did nothing to worsen it.

"No.", Aril began again. "Look over the world. You can't see the city from here, can you? Or anything on the ground?", she immediately demanded.

"She's right...", Varin said.

They lost track of time for a moment and fell quiet, staring around. Aril looked rather distraught for this time, and sat with her knees raised and her head resting against them.

Varin suddenly stood up.

"We're... above the black fog!!", he exclaimed in half-surprise, half-horror.

"Meaning that it's not just Draconia which has gone dark. The sky is black because the darkness affects every star and world out there. Everything is going dark.", Aril shouted with a sudden fury that seemed to come out of nowhere. "It's hopeless. There's no hope for any of us. Sekaigakure will be just as depressing as here! We have nowhere to run to, and there's nothing we can do."

Aril collapsed in a heap and sulked. "We're as good as dead."

Varin and Eyria stared down at Aril in shock, then up at the sky in greater shock as they realised she was most likely correct.

They sat down again. Eyria let the despair enter her soul. The more she thought about it, the more she realised that there was nothing she could do. She wanted to fight. She needed a purpose, something worth fighting for. But there was none, other than possibly survival.

"And I can just tell things are going to get even worse!", Aril wailed.

"Shut up.", Eyria snapped.

It occurred to Varin after a long while that they had been gone longer than the hour they had promised Erin. He got to his feet, and was about to open his mouth to suggest they leave quickly, when something caught his attention from the corner of his eye.

It was like a little ripple or distortion in the black world around him. However, it was growing bigger.

"You need to check this out.", he stated, attempting to regain his composure.

Aril raised her head from her knees, and looked at where Varin was looking.

Indeed, the blackness seemed to pulse and writhe, slowly getting stronger and more noticeable. Aril and Eyria stood up and blankly stared. It seemed like a stretch, now. The black was reaching up to greet them.  
The three experienced the dizzying illusion of the black blanket, tens of metres below them, appearing to be close enough that it could be touched.

Aril let out a cry of alarm as a distinctly human figure seemed to morph through the blackness, before stepping out onto the ludicrously high rooftop in front of Varin.

Truth be told, Vairn let out a cry of alarm too.

"What! What's going on? Who are you!?", Eyria demanded, pointing her staff at the person as if he was a ghost.

He was rather ghostly in appearance. He had silver hair and pale blue eyes, light skin drained of all colour, and his clothes were all ragged and white.

"To answer your second question, my name is Zale Smith.", the newcomer responded, in a deep and breathy voice like a clearer murmur.

"What about my first question, you freak?", Eyria interrogated, her nerves completely shattered, her staff quivering in her uncertain hands.

"It's not nice to call me that, you know? But it's not important. I am here because you are the enemy and I need to end you.", Zale responded.

"What the hell!", Aril shouted, and whipped out her dagger. Before Varin or Eyria could even begin to think to tell her not to, she dived at Zale and attempted to stab his neck with the shiny and fearsomely sharp blade.

Aril let out a string of words. "Get away from us! You can't just teleport to people and give them death threats! How do you even do that, anyway?!"

"I guess that means you're first.", Zale said carelessly, catching Aril's arm well before her attack connected, and giving her a firm push backwards, causing her to stumble and drop her dagger.

"Goodbye, enemy.", Zale said, glaring at Aril with void in his eyes.

Aril beamed back with the bitterest possible expression, and reached forward to grab her dagger.

Zale picked it up with deadly speed, again before she got close. Varin and Eyria looked on in horror.

"No! Don't touch her!". Eyria had finally comprehended the situation enough to intervene

She placed herself in between Aril and Zale, her bladestaff at Zale's throat.

Eyria gave a distorted shriek, and instantly she was on the other side of the roof, away from Zale and Aril.

"No!!", Varin shouted.

Zale let the dagger fly from his hand. He watched with glee as it struck Aril cleanly in the stomach.

Varin threw himself at Zale, but in less than a flash he, too, had been teleported, and crashlanded into Eyria far from where Zale was.

Aril gave an almost inhuman shriek of agony. "You can't get away from this, you... you worthless fiend! You abominable pile of rotten water! You-"

Aril gave a choking noise, and staggered towards Zale.

With a single kick, Zale sent Aril flying clean off the tower, to fall the impossible distance to the despair lying before.

"And this is why humans are useless. Inhumans, too.", Zale sighed.

Varin and Eyria were too shocked to do anything but stare in uttermost disbelief.

Neither spoke.

"I think I know who's going to be next!", Zale said, putting on a ludicrous creepy grin which seemed to stretch the boundaries of what a face was capable of.

A familiar voice shouted something from below them. "It's not going to be any of us!".

Footsteps were heard at an impossible rate, growing louder stunningly fast.

Within moments, a girl stepped out onto the roof, weilding two keyblades.

She strode up to Zale with a truly neutral expression, looking relaxed as hell. "Listen here. My name is Erin Molony, and I don't think you have any idea who I am."

Zale blinked. "I don't care.", he mumbled coolly. "You're no champion, if that's who you think you are."

"Oh really??", Erin responded, and performed a double slash with her keyblades, in a scissorlike movement at Zale.

Predictably, Erin got instantly teleported next to Varin and Eyria.

"Cute little party trick.", Erin commented. "If you wanted to hurt me, you would've teleported me off the edge."

"Where's the fun in that?", Zale questioned.

Erin reached into her pocket, pullet out a spiral pendant, and put it on in a second.  
"Anyway, your turn now."

Varin found himself teleported in front of Zale.

Erin reached into a bag, and pulled out another object he couldn't see too clearly.

Erin then disappeared completely. Only Eyria had time to be baffled.

"I know you're there.". Zale said, and turned to Erin, taking his attention off of Varin in the process. "Don't try anything funny."

"Funny? You mean like this?", Erin's voice said, although Erin was nowhere to be seen.

A string of footsteps happened. There was a tremendous crash, and an unseen force hit Zale across the left shoulder. A horrible cracking noise was heard, followed by the distorted cry of Zale teleporting off somewhere.

"W-what the hell!?", Eyria objected, unsure of any other possible way to react. "What was that??"

Erin took off her invisibility cloak. "That thing is that which is known as... the Avatar of Oblivion.".

Erin spoke the name with nought but foul hatred.

"Yeah, well.", Eyria said, suddenly resolute once more. "I'm going to kill that bastard."


	3. Chapter 3

Part III Prologue

The time didn't seem to be relevant anymore, but it was probably late afternoon, bordering on dusk -- it was perpetually dusk anyway -- when a voice spoke up in a crowded hotel room.

"I think it's time...", Serena began breathily, "...that we drop this joke and go do something. Let's just accept that the Dragon Riders are gone."

"Is there much we can do?", Cherry replied bitterly. She glanced at the rest of Team Dragon Rise and a few of their friends, scattered around the room, intently listening.

"We can go there ourself!", Serena cried out in response. "This is... the absolute worst disaster to ever happen to everywhere."

She stood up suddenly, then continued speaking. "I'm going to Draconia, no questions asked. I'll be the hope of Darii if all of you are too busy being ineffectual to be bothered."

There was silence for a second.

"Yeah, well, if you don't remember, Erin and Kushagra went in. they'll probably fix it soon, you know how efficient they are. Maybe it was poor judgment on their part and maybe we should've backed them up more, but I have full faith in them.", Shane stated calmly.

"We're not the Dragon Riders' legal team anymore! I don't care if you take on his name out of respect or whatever, you are nothing like the Prince. He'd be over there himself in less than five minutes! You're still not taking this seriously, mister lawyer-Shane, and we're not going to win unless we go out in full-force. Maybe Kushagra and Erin aren't enough this time.", ranted Serena.

Somebody cast the door open and strode in. "She's right, they weren't enough."

It was a tall, pale girl. She was wearing a large, glittery pink hat, and an excessively formal white business suit. 

Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked to see who it was. "Look... If you want to survive, you should come with me. If anyone tries to be difficult they get left behind. Now let's go."

"Wait wait wait...!?", Cherry demanded with a mixture of confusion and irritation. "Who the heck are you and how do you know what happened to them?"

"One, my name is Clarabella. Two, I was on Draconia less than an hour ago, I encountered her this morning. Erin's missing in action and Kushagra's dead." She went on seriously. "You'll be in for a crazy fight trying to get there if you stay here one second longer than you need to. Look out the window."

Cherry spun around. Dimly visible was a small army of shifting shapes, their movements unnatural, approaching inexorably. She tried her best to maintain her composure. "Okay, you win. Where do we go?"

"To my company's base of operations in Draconia. Easier to defend, and I have something special waiting there", Clarabella then said.

"Wait, you want us to go to Draconia? Where all the crazy crap is going down?!", Cherry asked in an outrage. "I thought you wanted us to survive! I can't believe they got Kushagra..."

"The only way any of us are going to survive is through unified action. If we avoid a fight, we all die, especially here on Surfacia."

Serena looked smug. "She's right you know~".

"Shut up!", Cherry spat at Serena. "Okay then, what's this threat of yours?"

"Fine, I'll answer your questions.", Clarabella said, glaring at Cherry. "Somebody truly powerful is causing the darkness. We need an army of our own to stand a chance. If you stay here, the darkness itself will get you. Surfacia's core doesn't magically protect life like Draconia does. No sun, no heat. A month from now, this place will be thirty below and covered in ice. Probably poisonous ice, given all the smog up there. That a good enough reason for you? Either way, I'm going, you're either with me or not, make up your mind.", she explained, speaking very quickly, before stepping away and storming off down the hallway.

"Go with her."

Cherry spun around. It was Shane Werner van der Merwe speaking. "Maybe this is what hope is after all... If there is any."

Cherry nodded. Serena was first out the door; the others filed out slowly. At the back of the line was Lily, an ally of Team Dragon Rise who had been working with them recently.

Clarabella stepped down a stairway or two, and it was only moments before they were out in the open. "I trust you know where the closest portal is?"

"Yep, it's just that way.", Cherry said. "Fifteen minutes walk at the most.". She squinted at the horizon, the creatures and shapes drawing nearer every moment. "Those don't look good... Will we be able to outrun them?"

"Depends how fast you can run. Probably. We just need to get there at all costs."

They formed a loose clump and ran out past the front gates into an empty, open road.

Cherry gave a signal; immediately, all the others began making their way down the road. "You better be coming too...", she muttered.

"I am.", Clarabella responded.

 

Part III Part I

"Varin. Get up, it's not safe up here.", Eyria whispered harshly.

"Hhh?", Varin said blankly, lifting his face from the hard roof.

"Hurry, we need to get out of here!"

Varin's eyes were blurry and his head was full of screaming and confusion, but he dragged himself to his feet nonetheless. "w-What's going on? Where'd Aril go? I f-feel...", he began.

"Oh, god, Varin, don't you remember? You were there, it was just five minutes ago! What's wrong with you!?"

He blinked before collapsing in a heap, unconscious.

"Damnit! We need to leave!"

Erin wordlessly began dragging Varin down the stairs.

Eyria followed, fuming but expressionless.

They had made it about halfway down when an echoing groan was heard. It was far too loud to be made by any human, Eyria decided, hurrying ahead of Erin and Varin with her staff raised, running down multiple stairs at once.

"Careful...!", Erin shouted. Eyria seemed fine, however, and soon she reached ground level. The groaning was heard again. "There's something out there!", she shouted up to Erin.

"Yeah, you're right, and I think I know what it is. Don't you dare open that door, at least until I get there!"

There was a hissing sound. Some kind of gas began seeping in through the edges of the door. "Oh no!", Eyria breathed, taking a step back.

Erin reached the bottom of the stairs as well, and frowned at the gas coming in through the cracks. It seemed to attack the door's very material, despite how solid it was.

"There's no other way out!", Eyria said.

Erin left Varin in a corner, still not awake. "Okay, fine. Here's the plan. Smash the door down, break dead whatever lurks beyond. Let's go!".

She didn't give Eyria a moment to react before leaping at the door, one keyblade raised. She made a neat slash along the door's hinges, then gave a firm kick to the now-loose door, causing it to crash out into the darkness outside. More translucent gas billowed in; it had a noxious green colour to it. Through the cloud, a grey mostrosity was visible, and very, very close.

Erin gave a jump backwards, so as not to touch the gas too much.

"...The hell is that?", Eyria asked.

Fortunately, it seemed like the gas dissipated fairly quickly. At the current volume, it couldn't quite reach across the entire width of the building.

"I'll tell you later! For now, I'll try to get it away from the exit!".

Erin grabbed Varin's dagger, and carefully thew it out the empty doorway at whatever beast was producing the deadly corrosive gas. It made another of its hideous groans, and released another blast of gas, flooding most of the room. Eyria dived under the stairs for protection.

"I think it's leaving!", Erin announced after a few more seconds, pressing herself against the floor to limit her exposure to the gas.

One tense minute later, the whatever-it-was had seemingly given up, and the gas in the room had mostly faded.

"Quick... It could come back any moment!", Erin whispered loudly.

"Nn...?", Varin spoke up, finally waking up again. He hardly had time to get to stand up before the other two rushed him out of the door and into the open.

They could see the beast clearly now, standing a reasonable distance away under a streetlight; it was plain grey, covered with shiny symbols in toxic pale green. Its form was twisted and hulking, and a thin haze of poison surrounded it. It reflected the light oddly, as if it wasn't quite real.

"Can you tell me now?" Eyria asked, turning to Erin.

"Yes...", she sighed. "That is a Hearthorror. Rather unusual, doesn't fall into any of the usual categories of Heart-creatures. Almost unheard of on Draconia... although really, it doesn't even feel like Draconia anymore so it doesn't really surprise me... I wish I still had my cards."

"...Cards?", Eyria responded after a short delay.

Erin sighed. "I used to have cards which could control a certain kind of Heart-creature. I didn't use them much, but they were nice to have, and then I lost them when..."

She trailed off into silence.

"When what?", Eyria pressed.

"I don't want to talk about it. I don't want to hurt you. Between the three of us, there has been too much tragedy already.", Erin replied, suddenly quiet and thoughtful.

Eyria simply nodded, though her curiosity burned wordlessly. It was several seconds before she spoke up again. "I think I've seen cards like that before, I just can't remember where..."

Varin silently began walking away, back into the heart of the city, leaving the Hearthorror far behind.

"Hey!", Erin said, and immediately started as well to catch up to him.

"No.", Eyria said gravely between her teeth, a sudden rage to her voice as if she was speaking to a traitor. "I'm not leaving without finding out what happened to Aril."

Varin suddenly spun around and glared at her. "You know there's no way she survived that, right? I don't care about anything. We're all going to die anyway!", he burst out.

Erin sighed. "What if the Hearthorror bothers us again?"

"You just scared off a ridiculously powerful psycho! Now that we're out in the open, it shouldn't be any problem for you, should it?", Eyria shot back.

She then marched back to the observatory and circled it.  
"This was hopeless from the beginning.", Varin mumbled. "That was just proven to us, by Aril's...pointless death. I'm leaving. You don't understand at all, Eyria's pretending she can make everything better, neither of you get it!"

"What don't I get?", Erin asked in reply.

"We can't escape! Every world has gone dark. We can't just go somewhere disaster-free, because there is nowhere!", Varin responded angrily.

"You think I don't know that?"

Varin stormed off. Erin made no attempt to stop him.

"I understand... more than you think I could imagine!", Erin called out after a moment.

Varin didn't stop.

Where was he going? He could try to make it back home, and wait out the apocalypse there. He could probably last a couple of weeks that way, assuming he didn't run into the Avatar of Oblivion again. It seemed unlikely; the Avatar of Oblivion would have a lot of people to kill, and he didn't seem to go about it in a very efficient manner.

It was too far away, though, and it's not like surviving an extra week or two was that much of a benefit. It would be a better idea to just wander the city until something happened he could care about.

At first he decided he was going to stay well away from the transportation building, instead choosing to take a wide arc around the eastern side of the city, but something made him want to check it out. Maybe he wanted to know how Kushagra had done; perhaps the building was accessible now.

It wasn't long before his thoughts were interrupted by a trio of Glitched approaching him from the side. He pulled out his dagger and turned to face them.

"Hey!!", A high-pitched voice yelled from somewhere behind him, followed by rushed footsteps. Varin spun around, just in time to be struck from behind, stumbling a bit. He hastened forwards to avoid further blows and to look at the source of the voice.

Varin couldn't get a clear look in the brief second, and turned back to engage the Glitched, deciding they were the more pressing threat.

He slashed at one and stepped backwards, narrowly dodging an attack, before getting in several hits, causing the leftmost one to collapse into dust.

Then, he was suddenly struck again by one of the remaining Glitched, and send spiralling to the ground, air knocked out of him. He got up as quickly as he could, which wasn't really all that quickly, and tried to refocus.

Two strangers ran up to him. Before he could process what happened, a neon-green-haired girl jumped in front of him and before one second had passed the Glitched were reduced to fading glitter.

Varin took a step back and gave a little sigh of relief that the immediate danger was gone. "Thanks.", he breathed, taking a closer look at the two of them.

The green-haired girl was wearing an orange jacket, red shorts, and had sparkly black ribbons tacked all over her outfit and hair. She was barefoot, and seemed unbothered by her gloomy environment. Her bright appearance seemed very out-of-place. She held two faintly-glowing whips, one in either hand, which she had clearly used to defeat the Glitched so easily.

The other one was a boy; he was unusually short, and he had long messy back hair going all over the place. Much like Varin, he was also wearing furry cat ears, although they were also messy and off-center, and were pale blue instead of white. He wore a blue Karjamian Mythos t-shirt and ordinary black pants. He did not appear to be carrying a weapon.

They looked to be the same age as each other, a little younger than Varin.

Finally, a short distance behind them, there was even a fluffy grey cat staring at him, looking obnoxiously cheerful.

The group's presence was a little unsettling to Varin. They reminded him too much of his own family, they seemed a little too comfortable standing in an evacuated city under supernatural darkness during the end of the world, and there was an air of artificiality surronding them.

"It's fine.", The girl replied after a few seconds. "It's strange, they never seem to bother us. Are you okay?"

"Well, no, but I'm not hurt at least.", Varin then said. It seemed strange to him that the Glitched wouldn't target them. Maybe they just hadn't caught their attention before, but the Glitched never seemed to mind who they beat up.

The girl seemed bemused by this response, and looked at the boy for a moment, who said nothing, before turning back to Varin. "Anyway, I'm Harmony and this is my... well, sort-of-three-quarters-brother Kiya. We're new here. It seems so pretty and fresh, it's a shame that it's all going to end soon."

It seemed bizarre to Varin that anyone could find this place nice under these circumstances. "Okay... I'm Varin. Where are you from, by the way?", he ventured to ask, hoping that might explain their attitude.

Kiya glared at Varin with an ice-blue gaze, then grabbed Harmony's arm.

"Umm... we better go. We were told to hide underground. You should probably do the same. Or, well, be careful at least!", she said, and promptly turned around, leaving briskly.

Did something about his question bother them? Either that or they were in a hurry to be wherever they were going.

Varin continued on his way, keeping his wits about him this time to avoid any Glitched he encountered. He made fast progress back to the city center, and within about fifteen more minutes he was back in front of the transportation building.

The Glitched were considerably thinned, but were still present, blocking his entry. The building was in worse condition than last he had seen it; a few windows had been broken and the lights had gone out. More interestingly, he could hear shouting coming from within. He walked in a circle around the building, trying to see what was happening inside.

There were at least five people in there from what he could gather -- he didn't recognise any of them, but they were quite skilfully fending off Glitched from all sides. Had these people just arrived?

He turned another corner, to get yet another perspective on the building. Instead, he was met by two Hearthorrors! Fortunately, they took no interest in him, instead clawing at the windows, breathing gas, trying to get at the fighters on the inside.

The front door burst open. A furious girl wearing a Dariian hazmat suit and wielding two poisoned daggers strode out. She didn't pay any attention to Varin, instead turning and shouting at someone. Shortly afterwards, a frantic group of at least fifteen poured out and paused in the open. Glitched were efficiently cut down, no threat to this team.

Varin dared to approach. The first to notice her was a grumpy-looking girl dressed in blue, who narrowed her eyes at him.

"Look! There they are!", someone shouted, and the group charged off towards the Hearthorrors. "Team Dragon Rise, attack!!"

Somebody who looked suspiciously similar to the Dragon Rider Prince led a charge. The hazmat suit girl was close behind. It took less than ten seconds to take down the first Hearthorror, and the battle was over before Varin could follow.

"We made it.", somebody announced calmly. It was the mysterious girl Varin had glimpsed several times in the past day or so.

"Yeah... looks like we did.", the hazmat suit girl replied, gathering herself together again and calming down noticeably. "This looks bad. Where to next?", she asked.

"The Ralink Cybertech building is that way...", Clarabella replied, pointing off to the northwest. "We'll be hiding out in the basement. There, there's an operational Isolation Zone facility which used to be run by the Cyphers. Now that they're gone, we can use it. It's a safe, sheltered training ground and a good place to gather our army, and with enough power to last for months."

"Wait, why would there be a Cypher facility in your parents' company's basement?", Cherry then asked. "Is there something you're not telling us?"

"There's a lot of things I'm not telling you, but I'll gladly explain it. The Cyphers owned a fairly large proportion of the company, and they worked together closely. My parents, being big supporters of the Cyphers, occasionally ordered things built for them. After the Dragon Riders were the first victims of the apocalypse, destroyed by the Royal Riders' Curse, the Cyphers were next, because the Avatar of Oblivion got them all, so we can just step in and do whatever we like with it."

Cherry nodded, not really satisfied with that, but deciding to disregard it for now.

"Wait a second, who's this?", the blue girl asked, gesturing at Varin, who shrank away in response to being called out. "There never have been hearthorrors on Draconia. Clearly somebody's calling them there! Why else would there be someone lurking so close?"

"Calm down, Charlotte. There never were weird cyber-zombies either.", Cherry ordered.

"He's harmless.", Clarabella stated. "His name's Varin, he's trying to run away to Sekaigakure, although I don't know why he's alone."

Charlotte seemed appeased.

"I changed my mind...", Varin spoke up. "I don't want to run anywhere. It's pointless."

"Maybe you should come with us, then?", Clarabella suggested. "That's fine with all of you, right."

"Sure, why not?", Cherry responded. Even Charlotte nodded in reply.

"I think I would like to...", Varin breathed. "Thank you."

 

Part III Intermission I  
Four Months Earlier

A preteen boy with chaotic, bright red hair, wearing simple black clothes, strode into the shadowy room. To the left, an older girl named Erin was peacefully sleeping. To the right, there was a cluttered desk. A beautiful deck of black cards sat in the corner.

Sixteen silently walked over to it, and snatched up the cards, feeling a rush of excitement as he did so. Now, with his old, ruined set replaced, he could be truly powerful again.

He hastily absconded, shutting the door as quietly as he could. Erin still slept.

Safely out in the hallway, looked down at the cards in his hands. They were of exceptional quality, being both more durable-looking and more ornate than his old Heartless Cards.

Everyone hated it when he was powerful, Sixteen thought. The moment he first discovered his ability to invoke the power in his first set, two years ago now, his good-for-nothing sister constantly tried to take them from him. So many times his family tried to confiscate them. They thought he couldn't be trusted with anything fun or exciting. They always liked his sister better anyway.

Then, a few months ago, one of his best friends ruined his coveted cards with water. She immediately claimed it was an accident, and didn't take it seriously. Of course she wouldn't, she was older than him and didn't want him to have any power. She didn't come to see him since then. Not that he wanted her to. Traitor.

He opened the next door down the corridor. Nothing of note. He didn't even bother close it.

There was something else he needed. Heartless Cards were fantastic, but he knew he could do much better. He could ascend far past Heartless cards if he was clever.

Sixteen had to throw open several more doors before he found what he wanted. It was another bedroom, where a younger girl was sleeping.

Except she wasn't sleeping. She was glaring at him.

"Get out.", Ailsa demanded.

He hesitated, and scanned the room, not bothering to say anything.

"Who do you think you are? Go away!"

There was an audible shuffling down the hall.

He glared straight back now. "I'm the Sixteenth Cypher! Now shut up!"

Ailsa stood up suddenly, and produced a glowing keyblade and a deck of white cards. "You're not welcome here! Leave now, or I'll destroy you!"

Sixteen drew a black metal dagger. "Oh, no you won't. Hand over those cards.", he said between his teeth.

Ailsa lunged at Sixteen, but he was too fast, and took a step back, Ailsa's keyblade swing narrowly missing him.

Before she could act again, Sixteen had retaliated, grabbing the Heartful Cards and throwing the keyblade out of her hand, then pushing her over to the ground. "Thank you. You can use these, right?", he asked with a grin.

"y-Yes...", Ailsa replied, the air knocked out of her.

"Good."  
Sixteen stood over her and leaned down.

Without another word, he slashed her throat.

Ailsa struggled for a moment, making a gurgling sound. Blood spilled everywhere, visible even in the dim light.

Footsteps were heard, getting closer. Ailsa had blacked out in only a few moments, and wouldn't survive the minute. Was it too soon?

He decided that time was of the essence, and pressed his hand to her forehead. One second later, he began the assimilation process.

He felt himself slowly borrowing her power. Oh, the things he could do now. He felt gleeful as he realised he was gradually gaining her ability to use Heartful Cards. Now both decks' power were his!

Sixteen stopped what he was doing; he'd be found out any second now. He shoved the window open, and leaped out, not caring how far it was down. Unknowns could take falls really well, anyway, disappearing out of sight just as Erin stood in the doorway.

He crashed into the concrete, but quickly gathered himself up. It hardly even hurt. It was too dark to properly examine all the Heartful Cards properly, but he was guessed he was holding a full deck. He dashed over to the nearest streetlight. Yelling was heard from the building, but he didn't care.

Now, for the moment of truth. He picked a Heartless Card and a Heartful card at random, and held one in each hand. He triggered the Heartless card with ease, and channeled Ailsa's ability to trigger the Heartful card less than a second afterwards. The Heartless entity hadn't finished being summoned yet when his summoned Heartful began to appear in the same place, its light energy overlaying and merging with the Heartless' shadowy mass. The two swirled around each other, before chaotically merging, rapidly growing and mutating with every second that passed, turning grey and green, colours not seen on any natural Heartless or Heartful.

Sixteen's spirit leapt. He had the formidable power of Hearthorrors on his side!

Now, he could finally get back at everyone who betrayed him. If he couldn't earn their respect, then he'd evoke their horror!

 

Part III Part II

"Have a lot of hope, Aril..." Eyria breathed, having completed her dark task. She strode back to Erin and handed her a hastily-cleaned dagger. "This is yours, isn't it?"

Erin sighed. "I don't need it, though. I guess I'll give it to Varin."

"That's a good idea... wait, where'd Varin go?", Eyria asked suddenly.

In response, Erin glared off into the distance. "He got upset and ran off. Can't really blame him..."

"That idiot.", Eyria growled in response. "Well, we better go find him. He only left a couple of minutes ago, didn't he? We can catch up."

"You can if you like. It wouldn't do much good though. I don't think he'll listen to reason, this is all just too much for him... hang on, I just got a message.", Erin said, before withdrawing her phone. She stared at it intently for a few moments.

"It's Belle."

"You mean, Belle Neumann the Wyvern Rider? Shane's sister? You know her too?", Eyria asked.

"Yep. I'm surprised she's even on Draconia. She says... she says a strange lady just approached her, claiming she was... sent from another timeline in the future? Also-"

"That's ridiculous!", Eyria exclaimed, cutting Erin off.

Erin sighed. "It's not easy to do, but this kind of stuff does happen. Remember, there was that story in the news last year, some Shana girl just appeared out of nowhere, claiming to be from the future?"

"Erin, that wasn't a real news story! That was part of a fictional characters interview as a promotion for the latest Dragon Riders Xi book.", Eyria pointed out.

Erin didn't take any notice. "It's even happened to people I know! Just a few months ago, my friend Bloom met a future version of herself!"

"Alright, fine. Even if this mystery person Belle met is from another timeline in the future, why did she think it would be relevant to you?"

"Well, if you'd let me finish...", Erin began, "...she also told Belle that she wanted to stop a cataclysmic disaster from happening."

"She's a bit late, then.", Eyria snarked.

"But she's on our side. They both are. They want to meet us, and take down Zale.", Erin concluded.

"Where do they want to meet?", Eyria then asked. "Do the Wyvern Riders even have a base of operations around here?"

"The other Riders aren't anywhere near here, it's just Belle and the other person.", Erin clarified, then suddenly sounded crestfallen as she continued. "She says a representative from the Cyphers pointed her to a place called Ralink Cybertech. I know where that is, I was just there earlier today... She'll be there in only two hours."

Eyria stared out across the landscape. A short distance away, she could make out a single white shape, still and silent. She recognised it immediately. Saira had found them again!

"We can't go there.", Erin finished, sounding resolute, and regaining Eyria's attention. "Instead, we should wait nearby and try to intercept them so they don't go in."

"Why's that?", she pressed, taking a few steps toward Saira. She seemed to be staring at them. "Shouldn't we find Varin first?"

"Don't ever, ever trust the Cyphers. Wyvern Riders are foolish like that.", she said plainly, and pointed herself in the direction of the building. "Varin has the sense to run away at the sight of danger, and he took his dagger with him."

"Is that supposed to be reassuring!?", Eyria responded. "Don't you still want to get Team Dragon Rise?"

Erin simply started walking, leaving Eyria no choice but to follow.

"I'm sorry. I'm happy to have you on my side and I don't want any more harm to come to either of you, but if I'm constantly chasing after your brother I won't be able to accomplish anything. Kushagra went to Surfacia without me, I figured that much out, so Team Dragon Rise will be here soon enough."

Eyria sighed, and kept walking. Saira drew closer to them, following cautiously; she never believed that the cat was any kind of Truth Wielder like her younger siblings always liked to imagine, but she was happy to see her again nonetheless. Saira seemed hesitant, however; she was always off in a different direction, as if trying to deflect them from their path.

"By the way... you know that stalker girl I followed earlier? She led me to Ralink Cybertech in the first place.", Erin added after a delay.

Eyria halted, expression unreadable. "Wait, that girl was from there?"

"Yep.", Erin said, and stopped too. "She claimed to be the only survivor."

"How have you not connected the dots yet?", Eyria responded, and frowned in a troubled manner. "That girl must be a Cypher! She's the only one who could've told Belle to go there.

"Cyphers don't work alone, Eyria. There are fifteen Cyphers exactly, no more, no less. Besides, why would a Cypher want to help me? The Cyphers always wanted the Dragon Riders gone."

They soon began walking again, more briskly.

"Well, then. Who else could she be? If she wasn't a Cypher, why would they point Belle to a potential ally?"

Erin shrugged. "Okay, if she is a Cypher, the other fourteen would've arranged some kind of trap or ambush. They wouldn't just let me leave with valuable information."

Eyria's voice grew quieter. "It doesn't make any sense..."

Saira's fluffy fur briefly brushed against her leg.

"I don't think she wants us to go this way.", she then said after a delay.

Erin spun around and looked down at Saira. "Aww, she's cute! I don't think she has any idea what we're doing, she's just being a cat... she's yours, right? Where was she earlier?"

"I really don't know, we just... lost track of her. The others always used to watch her every move, they thought she was psychic or something. They wore these funny little cat ears, too. Maybe you could say they were a little obsessed. I think it rubbed off on me a bit...", Eyria explained.

They had covered quite a lot of ground already. They seemed to be taking a long route around the outer parts of the city; it wasn't very direct at all, but there were almost no Glitched out here. It seemed that in the past day or so, they'd begun concentrating, gathering in the inner parts of the city. When Eyria first came to the city, they were scattered throught it quite evenly, but that was no longer the case. It should've been comforting to see it so empty and safe, but the longer she walked, the more uneasy it made her.

Eventually, Erin stopped and turned. "We'll need to cut deeper into the city for the last stretch. Then, we can approach from the Southeast.

Eyria nodded, and they wordlessly set off deeper into the city once again. She didn't need to be told to have her weapon ready.

It wasn't long before the Glitched along the dull grey street became dense enough to be unavoidable. One scudded in their direction; Eyria dealt with it in a few messy slashes.

It was followed by a small group of them, and then another. This drastically slowed their progress, but they were never in a large enough number to pose much of a threat to Erin's skills.

Eventually, they found themselves in front of the Ralink Cybertech building. Several windows were lit, but only on the ground floor. Eyria picked up Saira, and Erin quietly pushed them towards a dark corner, from which two sides of the building were clearly visible. They were out of view of any streetlights, so were unlikely to be seen from anyone out in the open unless they were actively searching.

The tension almost drove Eyria mad. The thrill of the action had nullified her fear, but now that she was quietly waiting, she felt a sort of paranoia creep in. Maybe there was nothing around the nearest corner. Maybe there was something predictable like a Glitched or perhaps Belle arriving. Her imagination, however, created far grander scenarios.

It felt like an hour, but it really wasn't anywhere near that by the time Belle Neumann and her new friend stepped into view. They came from the south, along the same street Eyria and Erin had arrived from. They couldn't really be seen very clearly from here. "Stay here for the moment, she's only expecting me.", Erin whispered, then got up and ran over to the two.

Belle took an alarmed step back, the other person safely behind her. "...Erin? Hey there.", she said simply. "No need to jump out at me, though."

The other person was wearing a traditional Dariian maid uniform, and had very pale hair. She was silent.

"Actually, there is.", Erin said in a whisper. "You can't go in. You said yourself that Cyphers are behind this!"

"So?", Belle responded. "I have no issue with the Cyphers."

They both strode past Erin and up to the building's door.

"Wait!", Erin shouted, dropping all stealth.

"I don't take orders from you.", Belle said calmly.

Erin watched as somebody familiar threw the door open for the two.

It was Lily.

She had no idea why Lily would even be here. Maybe Team Dragon Rise had somehow been called here too? She felt both relieved and confused to see her standing there. For one, it probably meant it wasn't hostile at least. She beckoned Eyria over, and she got up. Saira didn't seem to want to follow, however, and it made Eyria feel hesitant.

"Come on!", Lily yelled. Eyria decided not to argue, and ran after her.

"Exactly what's happening over here?", Erin demanded of Lily.

"This girl showed up at our room and dragged us off over here. Says she's building an army to set things right...", Lily explained calmly.

"Which girl? You mean Clarabella?"

"Yeah, pretty sure that's her name.", Lily responded. "Hey Erin, where's the other girl?"

"I don't want to talk about it.", Eyria immediately said gravely.

Lily frowned. "Well, if she's not coming, I guess that's everyone. Go into the left corridor, keep following it around. Should find some stairs leading down. That's where you'll find all your answers you need... but you better hurry!"

Lily immediately gave them a gentle push down the hall.

Eyria was still a little bewildered and not entirely sure how all this had happened so far, but she didn't complain. They strode briskly around a corner. The hall lights weren't on, so it was fairly dim.

"I wonder what happened to everyone else...", Erin breathed as they paced towards the stairs. "The rest of the people of the company, I mean. And, I guess, everywhere outside, too... Doesn't it seem a little /too/ empty to you? There's almost nobody still in the city."

Eyria looked at the ground one or two metres in front of herself. "Hmm... They could be hiding somewhere? Or maybe the Glitched got them? It is strange, though."

"Possible, but even that doesn't explain why there's only one survivor from the company left..."

"I don't think it's important.", said Eyria, then turned down the concrete stairway.

The atmosphere changed immediately. While the ground floor was clean-looking and well-ventilated, as they stepped down it grew cold and stale; almost every surface was grey, and the place felt sort of like a bombshelter.

They quickly reached a plain, open area, with the occasional concrete pillar. It had the same grey aesthetic. Half the area was occupied by dusty machinery.

"Wanted to see what I have here after all, Erin."

She spun around. Clarabella was standing there, with a cluster of familair faces behind her.

Cherry walked up to her. "I'm glad you're okay. You're just in time. It's okay, our questions are going to be answered."

"Well, I have a question.", Eyria suddenly began before Cherry had finished her sentence. "Are you a Cypher?"

Clarabella shot Eyria a death glare, then closed her eyes and sighed. "That's not relevant."

 

Part III Intermission II  
Two Days Earlier

The room was bright and airy, but the black walls and expressionless metallic masks on everyone's faces made it feel stifling anyway.

All eyes were on Ximk, who stood at a lectern. She was probably smiling sweetly but falsely underneath that opaque mask.

A girl stood up silently and strode up to Ximk. She tore off her own mask, and threw it at her before throwing her out of the way, sending her crashing to the floor.

Ximk was back on her feet immediately.

"What is the meaning of this, Laclexalbar?", she shouted.

"That's not my name.", Clarabella stated, not even bothering to look at Ximk. "I have nothing more to do with any of you, and it never was my real name like yours are." She pulled out a heavy book and slammed it down on the lectern, before opening it and flipping to a particular well-memorised page.

"Look at what you've been supporting! This is what it says in the Dragon Riders prophecies!", she said, her voice rapidly elevating to a scream. "It's all here in Eris-Nott 33:8-10! Perfectly black and white! I can't believe you fools did this!". Rage burned in her eyes, and she began reciting in a voice so fast and chaotic that it was difficult to understand:

"Snaem yna yb ylap otni semoc Selcinam Sredir' Nogard Layor eht fo Esruc eht fi EB OT ESEAC LLIW LLA taht dehsilbatse neeb sah ti! Sdrolw LLA fo efil eht fo noitcurtsed eht htiw deksat eb ot si Noivilbo fo Ratava eht sa nwonk si hcihw taht! Erehwyna morf lavirra sti wolla erofereht dna Senalp neewteb sreirrab eht egamad llahs Esruc eht!"

"So what?", Ximk shouted. "You're betraying us? As of three hours ago, all our enemies are either dead or not powerful to stop us! We can rule Draconia together! Isn't that what you always wanted!?"

"Not like this!", Clarabella shot back.

"But we couldn't have done it without you! This is your work! And we won't stop at Draconia... We can conquer Darii! All of space can belong to us!! And then the elemental planes!! We could even take Karjam's Domain!! I can make you queen of a trillion galaxies! All with the help of our friend!"

"The Avatar of Oblivion is not your friend, You fool! He destroys everything!!"

Ximk grabbed the book. "It says here in the very next verse! Eris-Nott 33:11! Sretsam sti fo doolb eht ron, doolbemas yna llips ton llahs ti! That's us! It serves US!"

"No it doesn't! Avatar of Oblivion... is uncontrollable! If we are its masters, then we are responsible for not only eternal darkness, but so many deaths that our names will be spoklen of with more hated more than Pacen! If there's anyone left after this!", Clarabella replied.

Fire shot from Ximk's hands, and set the book ablaze. "All of you! Kill this pathetic idiotess!", she screeched, then tore the book to shreds, setting herself on fire in the process and showering the remaining Cyphers with burning pages.

Several of them stood up, and began charging at her.

Ximk turned her fire to Clarabella, her suit rapidly catching fire as well. Clarabella produced her deadly-sharp naginata, and lunged at Ximk. The blade pierced her neck, and she collapsed in a bloody mess, still lightly burning.

"Runic slash!", yelled Xeclotthar; a crescent-shaped pulse of glittery purple magic shot through the air.

Clarabella threw herself out of the way. "Emerald needle!", she shouted in reply, and a narrow spear of red emerald flew from her hands, before planting itself in Xeclotthar's chest.

She was surrounded, and the only key out of the Cyphers' meeting room was held by Xeshan; there'd be no escape unless she could somehow fight off them all.

Several more advanced on her; she gave a few deadly slashes to Xirdrach, who came at her with shots of Heart magic, while throwing more needles, this time of amethyst and obsidian, at Rhixsoyo, until he fell as well.

She let out a cry as Xerneas lunged at her with two poison daggers in each hand. One cut through her suit, which had stopped burning, and down her side, giving her a nasty gash.

Clarabella struck Xerneas with her naginata until she collapsed.

She suddenly choked; Xylorta was calling down poison gas on her. Several more precise shots of various rocks and minerals struck down Xylorta, Shukagrax, and Rodarxar in turn.

Her right shoulder was suddenly hit by an arrow from a Cypher named Lazorax, and she dropped her naginata, her entire arm going limp. Yelling with pain and fury, she shot down Lazorax, then Haxs, Roxas, and Naxhas.

With the last of her energy, she shouted at the heavens: "Torment technique! 1009 Needles!"

More of her magical needles -- made of an ethereal white substance this time -- swept around her in a whirlwind, before hurling themselves at the remaining Cyphers, who will still charging.

They came at an incredible pace, and Xalun, Kemix, Xalxe, and finally Xeshan were pierced in at least a hundred places each by the time the onslaught ceased.

She stumbled over to Xeshan, discarding her ruined suit, and grabbed the key from him. She could feel the poison setting in as she made her way to the door and clumsily opened it. Hopefully, she'd be able to survive long enough to find an antidote. The arrow wasn't very embedded at all and wasn't life-threatening, but the poison definitely was. The Cyphers deserved to die, but she was still sickened knowing that she was partially responsible for their apocalyptic scheme.

 

Part III Part III

Varin sat in a corner, staring blankly ahead with a dazed expression. It would seem to most people that there was nothing going on in his head. The background sounds, a jumble of nervous voices, was just noise to him. Nothing made him react until Erin strode up to him and dropped Aril's dagger in front of him, causing a distinct clattering sound.

"Here you go. I think you should have this now.", she said quietly.

"Thanks...", Varin said lazily, and slowly picked it up.

Erin said nothing for a short while, but didn't leave. She just stood there, looking at him.

Varin looked up at Erin after about half a minute. "Do you want anything else?"

"Why aren't you angry?", Erin asked seriously, ignoring his question.

"I am.", Varin replied, then slowly stood up.

"Yeah, well, shouldn't you be trying to do something about it?"

"What do you suggest?"

"We're all working together to win this! We can save not only ourselves but maybe billions of surviving offworlders, and we can remove the darkness from Darii! Even if you don't care about anyone else, at least you can get your revenge!", Erin responded impatiently.

"That's impossible!", Varin shouted bitterly in reply.

"It's only your awful attitude making it impossible! Can't you at least help us!?", Erin responded angrily, then sighed and stamped off.

"I'm sorry...", Varin responded after a moment.

"Alright, people! The rules of this war...", Clarabella began loudly, all the other voices quickly fading.

"One, the Avatar of Oblivion is arrogant. He thinks he's invincible, but to be fair he might be. We can use that against him."

"Yes.", Erin added. "He also seems to treat everything as some kind of game. If he doesn't know who you are, he's likely to hold back because he finds it more fun that way."

"Can't rely on that though.", Clarabella continued. "We have no idea what the full extent of his abilities are. Rider prophecies speak of the end of the world in considerable detail, but many of the actual capabilities of the Avatar are shrouded in metaphor. Which brings me to my second point."

The stranger Belle had brought reacted to that, removing her maid hat and raising her hand briefly before immediately reconsidering.

"Two, the Avatar is capable of the corruption of space and time. He can break down reality if he wishes. His teleportation abilities are virtually limitless, and he can teleport others into harm's way. I have these..."

Clarabella held up a handful of spiral pendants, identical to the one Erin was wearing earlier.

"...which are immune to teleportation and render the wearer immune as well. This negates one of his many advantages, but it also means we can't fight him off of Draconia for obvious reasons."

"He's also capable of powerful telekinesis, and probably has other psychic-element abilities too.", Erin stated.

"That's surprising. Nothing in the prophecies speaks of him being psychic... He does however have contol over "doom" and "despair", although it's not clear what those entail. He's also responsible for all the zombie-like data-monsters running around, but not the Hearthorrors, I can't explain those.", Clarabella added.

"Well, what else can he do?", Cherry pressed.

"He has all twelve manicles. He wears them, but it's not clear if they confer any benefit to him. No God nor machine of God can touch him, but nobody really knows what a "machine of God" is so that might not mean anything."

"It's worse than that.", Belle said gravely.

"The third rule, which I find fascinating...", Clarabella kept speaking, not really acknowledging Belle's comment, "It is also said he can't "spill sameblood nor the blood of its masters". His masters are the Cyphers, as they brought him about, but that doesn't help us much. As for "sameblood", that probably means his family, so first we should find out who his family is. Anyway, our first priority is to seek out these individuals that he can't harm."

"I already know!", Belle proclaimed.

The other girl, who seemed rather shy up to this point, grabbed Belle's hand and strode up beside Clarabella.

Everybody heard her voice, but she never actually spoke. It's like she was projecting her words into others' minds.

"(That passage refers to the Neumann line.)", she declared.

Clarabella fell silent and let her speak.

"Who even are you!?", somebody asked.

The girl removed her hat a second time. "(I am Lavitka Nastenka Neumann. I've come from the future... to change it so that it is vastly different than the timeline I came from.)"

Eyria felt a little disoriented by her method of communication, and her words still seemed a little far-fetched. "So, what you're saying is... If you are who you say you are, that the Avatar is also of the Neumann line, and a relative of yours?", she asked slowly.

"(Yes. Zale is my half-brother.)", Lavitka clarified.

"Well then, how did you get here?", Cherry then asked.

"(I went along with him by the same means, travelling from 2035 to 2014. All of Shane's children did. It's in the Wyvern Rider prophecies that the Lord of Silence will be stolen to another universe if the Curse of the Royal Dragon Riders triggers. I knew I had to be at the same time and place as him if I wanted to )"

"There is no such thing as a Wyvern Rider prophecy!", Belle objected, looking horrified. "They never existed. To suggest that they did is blasphemy! Take that back, Lavitka!"

"(Every single copy may have been obliterated in your timeline, but in mine, one was recovered from the ashes of Avori, and it became a holy text for the Way of Silence.)"

Belle silently fumed.

After a short while, Clarabella spoke up. "The history of your timeline sounds fascinating, I'd like to hear it in full if we survive this, but how many children did Shane have?"

"(Four.)", Lavitka replied succinctly.

Clarabella then turned to address the group once more. "That means, in addition to Belle, Lavitka, and the Avatar himself, there are two others of the Neumann line running around. Maybe more from his mother's side, whoever that might be."

"(Nope.)", Lavitka began again. "(He has a great deal of family on his mother's side -- So many of them are here, too! It's great to see you all again even if you don't recognise me, you look so young! The problem is, he's an Inhuman while his mother wasn't, so it sort of doesn't work.)"

"Just two then?", Clarabella then asked.

"(That's correct. Anyway, everyone... I might not be able to fight that well, but I have a gift for you.)"

Lavitka pulled out a tiny book with a blue, shiny cover. "(I wrote this myself. It contains recipes for two poisons I have developed specifically to fight him. First, an extremely illegal erasure poison -- a Void-element-infused substance which makes anyone exposed to too much of it to simply cease to exist. There's also a stasis poison, which doesn't kill but has the same property as Clarabella's pendants -- it stops people from teleporting.)"

Taylor raised her hand. "Can we make them into poison gases?", she asked, sounding extremely excited.

"Not a bad idea.", Clarabella responded.

"Well, in theory, you can't.", Shane Werner van der Merwe stated. "It's against the law of the Draconia Kingdom to attack people with scary unapproved poison gases, even if they are illegal immigrants. In practice, though... society has broken down anyway so you might as well go ahead."

"I'll start researching that immediately!", Taylor replied happily, and stepped up to Lavitka to examine her book.

"There is a different job for you, actually.", Clarabella said. "Lavitka should research it herself, if that's okay with her... You, your sisters, Eyria, and Charlotte should go out and find the rest of Shane's future children and bring them here."

"But Lavitka knows what they look like! She'd do a much better job.", Taylor pointed out with disappointment.

"I think... I think I know what they look like too.", Varin said, raising himself from the hard concrete floor once again.

Everyone's eyes were instantly pointed at him. "You do...?", Eyria asked in bemusement.

"y-Yes... I do."

"Great. You can go too then.", Clarabella said.

All the people she listed began to gather in a loose group, near the stairs leading out of the basement. Varin wandered over as well.

"What about the rest of us?", Cherry asked.

"Our army is almost complete. Some can enter the Isolation Zone immediately. Training is always good too. After you six come back...", Clarabella began, then gestured at Taylor, Dianke, Lily, Charlotte, Eyria, and Varin, "...most of us will simply be lying in wait for an opportunity to strike."

"That sounds easy... what about you, what will you be doing?", Cherry asked another question.

"Going to tie up just a last loose end...", came the response. "I want just one more fighter on our side. I'm going to find my brother Alyrium and talk some sense into him. You can be in charge if you like, while I'm away."

She took her eyes off of Cheery and stared at the wall, as if recalling long-buried memories. "Should either of us die, I want amends to be made first... there might not be much time.", she said with a hint of wistfulness, before regathering her focus.

Cherry nodded. "Just one more question?"

"Go ahead."

"What exactly is an Isolation Zone?".

"All the machinery behind me.", Clarabella answered. "It keeps up to 16 people alive in an almost deathlike sleep for several months. The Cyphers needed it so that they could safely sleep through all the actual destruction by being totally invisible to anyone seeking out life to destroy... then they were to rise again and rule the cosmos through the Avatar. Now, you guys can rest for a while if you like, but it would be good if you could leave in a couple of hours."

"We'll do that.", Lily complied uneventfully.

Clarabella said nothing more for a short while, but when she spoke again her voice was lowered and serious. "That's the longest I think we'd be willing to wait... the Avatar could find us at any time, and each second we're not hidden away is a second the probability of being found escalates."

It wasn't too much later when Eyria, Varin, Charlotte, and the Smith sisters left on their mission. Clarabella had left at the same time, but travelled in a radically different direction. They were heading back to the other side of the city, where Varin had last seen the strange people, but Clarabella instead travelled to the North, and was quickly out of sight.

Eyria felt a little more confident walking the haunted streets now. Perhaps she had faith in the competence of the others; Charlotte was one of Team Dragon Rise just like Erin, and the others had travelled with them and were clearly well respected enough.

Saira followed them as well. She didn't seem to want to go into the building, but was more than happy to keep nearby if they were anywhere else.

With all the powerful warriors on their side, they managed to fight through Glitched with relative ease. They had formed a huge group around the ruined transportation building once more, so they were forced to go around.

They walked for hours in total silence. Eyria didn't mind; she was happy enough that Varin had agreed to at least come along, and had her own set of thoughts.

Varin had gotten the impression that when and if they managed to find them, they'd see them from a long way off and be able to plan their approach, but he was completely oblivious to their presence until Dianke was suddenly knocked to the ground out of nowhere at the edge of a road, making a loud squeak of alarm as she crashed into the pavement.

Harmony had attacked her with a flying hug. "Dia! I thought I'd never see you again!"

Eyria took a step back in confusion. Kiya was standing about ten metres away, holding his grey cat, staring at the group with a dead serious gaze. Saira seemed somehow interested in him, and was sitting fairly close, watching his every move.

Harmony got up and brushed herself off. "Sorry.", she said concisely, then glanced at Kiya, who put his cat down before urgently signing something to Harmony.

She sighed. "What are you talking about? Don't do that!".

Kiya ignored her and pulled out a notebook and a phone.

Harmony simply focused her attention back to the others. She aggressively patted Taylor on the head, then grinned at Lily. "I miss you so much! Wow, I'm amazed, I know all of you!"

She gave Charlotte a hug as well before turning to Eyria. "Teisen told me so much about you, he won't shut up about how awful you are... You can't be that bad, though, if Dia trusts you!"

Taylor stared with a baffled expression. "Umm, this is the first time we've met, whoever you are. Anyway, you need to come with us."

"Oh, sorry...", Harmony said, and stood back. "Of course you don't recognise me. My full name is Harmony Sarenford Neumann. Over there being grumpy and boring is my maybe-kinda-brother Kiya. I'm just so happy to see you again after you all died in the war, especially you, Dia!"

"Yep, this is definitely them.", Varin stated.

Eyria regained her composure. "I've never met Teisen either! Who even is he? Anyay, our allies need your help. We're trying-"

Harmony suddenly cut her off. "He's a new friend of my other sort-of-half-brother, Teisen's pretty cute but he's so bitter all the time... Teisen's just a nickname, he won't tell us his real name. He usually goes by one of his other names, which he says he chose because it's a clever anagram with an X in it. Seems kind of silly... anyway, it's all way too confusing, so I just call him Teisen."

Kiya made several attempts to sign something to Harmony, but soon gave up, strode over to Harmony, and forced a scribbled note into her hand. She paused to read it.

"This is ridiculous, Kiya! Of course I'm going to go with them!". She tore up the note into four pieces and tossed them on the ground.

Kiya calmly signed something else in return.

"Anyway, that's fantastic, we were just about to ask you to join us. The Neumann line can help us a lot in our effort to save Darii.", Eyria said, trying to sound important.

"Darii's under threat? What from?", Harmony asked. "I've never been to Draconia before, I thought it was always like this..."

"No, this is the work of the Avatar of Oblivion.", Eyria clarified.

"I don't know what that is!"

"I think it's the same thing as the Lord of Silence?"

Harmony looked alarmed. "You mean... Zale's a threat to Darii? How could this happen? I mean, my half-sister Lavitka thought he was dangerous, but she's always so negative and depressing, I never believed her..."

Kiya moved closer and signed something a third time to Harmony.  
Harmony looked gravely to the others. "If what you say is true... I'm not sure I believe you... but Kiya just called Zale here a minute ago. If you think he'll hurt you, you better run now!!"

Varin didn't need any more encouragement to bolt around the nearest corner, wishing to place as many heavy buildings between himself and the Avatar as was reasonably practical. Charlotte followed him with haste. "You heard her! Hurry!!", she called out.

"Why did he do that!?", Eyria asked desperately.

"He thought you were... "worthy of his notice", whatever that means.", Harmony said. "May Konara protect you all.", she said with an uncharacteristically deep and serious tone, then aggressively waved her hand at Lily, Taylor, and Dianke. They all shot off as a group, and Saira chased after them; Eyria wasn't sure why.

She considered asking another question, but decided to stop wasting time and simply dashed in the opposite direction, quickly out of sight, then out of earshot shortly after.

There was a flash of cold white light somewhere behind her only ten or eleven seconds later. The Avatar of Oblivion stood there, pale and ghostlike, beside Kiya, whose appearance seemed grounded in reality by comparison.

Harmony looked a little startled and shaken, but Kiya was totally unfazed.

"Where is the enemy?", he asked simply.

Kiya pointed to where Saira was standing at an intersection, gazing back at him.

"I'll deal with it. Nobody shall harm you.", Zale responded. The landscape morphed all of a sudden; the nearby buildings were twisted and distorted, the blocks of the pavement became paper-thin, and Saira stood hardly a metre from Zale. He crossed the distance with a single step, then the world's proportions immediately sprung back to normal. From his new position, the fleeing Smith sisters were visible.

They screamed like lunatics and split up.

"Over here!", Charlotte said in a loud whisper from a building of some description next to Eyria. Without thinking, she threw open the door to the crawlspace underneath it and forced herself through, then immediately found herself crashing into Charlotte; they tumbled about amongst the dirt before Charlotte moved to the door as fast as she could manage in the dark with limited space, slamming it shut.

Varin stood in a particularly black shadow, trying to make himself look as small as possible.

Dianke doubled back to where Kiya was standing stoically with an unreadable expression and Harmony was on the verge of a nervous breakdown as she watched the action unfold, glancing anxiously for where Zale had gone.

Lily turned to the right, while Taylor rushed forward down the street with impressive speed.

This left Zale a clear shot, however. He gave a shout, and sent out a pulse of vibrant purple psychic energy from his head; It accelerated towards Taylor, and sent her flying, crashing into a metal Dariian streetlight. She fell down in a daze, flat on the ground.

Zale warped to her in an instant, then, with a supernaturally wide grin, threw two of his throwing knives before she could respond.

She let out a scream as one struck her in the chest, then made a choking noise as the second pierced her throat. There was no way she'd live; blood was already flying.

He wasted no time and rose into the air, and moved with terrifying speed below the clouds, surveying the area. He located Lily, and neatly landed behind her.

He pulled out nine beautiful swords, made of a translucent violet substance, and held one in each hand with the other seven floating around in front of him.

"All must end, enemy!", he declared, and lauched himself and his swords forward faster than a terrified Lily could run, falling upon her in a cascade of deadly blades, hastily finishing her off with a simple blast of black energy.

Eyria tried her best to blot out the screams and terrible sounds, hoping beyond all else that none of them were Varin's.

She and Charlotte heard Dianke run past the building they were hiding under, a sound consisting of footsteps and rushed, desperate panting.

With another flash of light, strong enough to shine through the cracks of the tiny door and partially illuminate Charlotte's face. Zale was there.

There was no way Dianke could run fast enough; how can you outrun someone who can be anywhere. He took aim with a throwing knife and hurled it at Dianke.

"No!!", came a frenzied shout.

Harmony threw herself in the way of the knife. It seemed almost without substance to her; it connected with her hand edge-first, but it did no damage. Instead, it weakly rebounded off, leaving Harmony's hand utterly unscathed.

"You... they were right about you!!", Harmony shouted. "I'm not letting you hurt Dia!"

"Step aside, Harmony.", Zale ordered.

"Are you even listening to me!?", she responded. She began to undergo a strange transformation. Her clothes had morphed into a long, dark green gown, and instead of a black glittery bow in her hair, there was now a beautiful crown of leaves, hovering above her head like a halo.

"I know you're happy to see her again, but you can't bring her with you to the next world. It will be just the four of us."

"I don't care!", Harmony declared. "Don't you mean five, anyway?"

The transformation grew more extreme. She sprouted two pairs of wings; one was made of an ethereal and constantly-shifting neon-green material, while the other, slightly smaller, was made of green feathers.

"No, I mean four.", Zale clarified. "Myself, Kiya, Teisen, and you. Don't you want to go to the next world?", he then asked authoritatively.

"No! I said I don't care! I only came with you so I could see my family again and you... you monster...", Harmony said before running out of words. Her strange transformation had also affected her weapons; her two whips had somehow become a gigantic greatsword, longer than Harmony was tall. Despite this, it did not seem to encumber her at all, as if it were part of her body.

She brandished it in a threatening gesture. "I might not be psychic like you, Kiya, and Lavitka... but I am a Sivleren Fairy!"

"I don't expect you to understand! Just let me go about my task and the rewards will be beyond measure! Isn't that what you want?", Zale reasoned.

"No! I don't want anything you can offer me, I will never go with you again! I want Dia to be safe!"

Zale sighed. "Well then, Harmony... I guess that means you are now the enemy. Just like that traitor Lavitka is the enemy. If there's only three of us... all that means is there exists one fewer person to share the next world between."

"So be it!", Harmony yelled.

He shot her a death glare, and strode over to Kiya, placing one hand on the top of his head while picking up Saira with the other. All three of them then vanished in a puff of white light.

Harmony fell to her knees and sobbed. Her transformation rapidly faded, and within half a minute she was back to her old self. Dianke cautiously approached.

Charlotte tentatively looked out from her hiding place. "It's okay, he's gone...", Harmony called out weakly. 

She then stood up and turned to Dianke. "I'm sorry I couldn't save them... You were right all along. You all were."

Dianke looked sorrowfully past her. "I can't believe they, ah, really got caught... I heard them screaming, there's nothing we could do... You really need to come with us, then we can, ah, fight him properly..."

She broke down as well.

"At least I could save you... If Shane's already dead here, then I don't exist natively in this timeline, but where I'm from... you are my mother."

Dianke didn't know how to respond to that.

Varin stepped out from behind a corner, and Eyria moved to greet him wordlessly.

"I guess... let's go see what happened to the others.", Charlotte said grimly.

"I don't want to know...", Dianke sobbed.

Kiya's grey cat padded over to Dianke and Harmony. Harmony patted it on the head. "You won't leave me, will you Konara?".

Dianke stood and dusted herself off, then stood beside Charlotte. When she spoke, her voice was shaky yet forceful.

"Let's go back. We're done here."

 

Part III Epilogue

A boy with angry red hair stood on a tall rooftop, watching for signs of movement in the quiet broken road below. There was a lot of wind, and his hair waved irritatingly.

There was a flash of white light. He didn't need to spin around to know that it was Zale and probably Kiya and Harmony too, but he did so anyway.

When he did, he found Harmony wasn't there.

Zale quickly decoded Sixteen's expression. "She's not one of us anymore. She is the enemy."

Sixteen didn't expect he'd be so crestfallen that he wouldn't see Harmony again. Still, he had to keep things in perspective. What was important was, in order, his revenge, his life, his cards, and the next world. Anything else was just a bonus.

It would've been nice to keep all three of them on his side, but it was no big loss.

"Did you find anything?", Zale asked.

Sixteen squinted at the horizon. A tiny figure began walking across the landscape far below, gradually approaching from the South; she wore an overly sparkly white suit and a distinctive pink hat. "No... but just now I have."

Zale looked in the same direction and frowned.

"Want me to get rid of her for you? I know you can't touch her.", Sixteen suggested.

"Go for it.", Zale said simply. "Or maybe you could follow her and see where she's going. It's up to you."

"I think I'll do that.", Sixteen replied with a little smile.

"Now... I will be off. I'd like to go to Cirai next. My beasts have already brought ruination across parts of Draconia, and they spread further every hour. It is only a short time until the ruin is complete. It's like a plague. I need you to find and hunt down those who might resist them. You'll start with her, of course...", he began, and gestured down into the road where Clarabella walked, "but make sure you get Harmony, too."

Sixteen banished his emotions and grinned evilly.

Zale then turned to Kiya. "You are still under my protection. You may do whatever you like. I owe you that much."

Kiya said nothing.


End file.
